I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. | 
Chap. _CX2.l5!_.._. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. \ 




STATUE OF STEPHEN GIRARD, CITY HALL PLAZA, PHILADELPHIA, UNVEILED MAY 20, 1897. 



Statue of Stephen Girard 



RECORDS OF ITS ERECTION 
AND UNVEILING 



CITY HALL PLAZA, PHILADELPHLA, MAY 20, 1897 



COMMEMORATIVE POEM BY H. HANBY HAY 



HISTORICAL ESSAY BY GEORGE P. RUPP 



# 



PHILADELPHIA 

PRINTED BY J. B. LiPPINCOTT COMPASS f^^ ^Ov^ 
1897 



^ \ij?fVVrASH\^^ 






This book is edited, at the request of 

THE committee ON GIRARD STATUE, BY 



GEORGE P. RUPP. 



Library, Girard College, 
July 30, 1897. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Report of the Secretary of the Committee on Girard Statue .... 7 

Report of the Chief Marshal 13 

Order of Exercises at the Unveiling 19 

Introductory Remarks by General Louis Wagner, Chairvian ... 25 

Prayer by Rev. Winfield S. Baer, '74 29 

'Oration by Hon. James M. Beck 33 

Presentation of the Sculptor, J. Massey Rhind, by the Chairman . . 57 

Address by Hon. Charles F. Warwick 61 

Address by Hon. Daniel H. Hastings 71 

Report of the Committee on Founder's Day, May 20, 1897, to the 

Board of Directors of City Trusts 77 

Commemorative Poem by H. Hanby Hay 83 

Stephen Girard : His Time, His College, His Trusts, by George P. 

Rupp 91 

Will of Stephen Girard 121 

Report of the Treasurer of the Committee on Girard Statue . . . . 157 

List of Contributors 163 



REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE COM- 
MITTEE ON GIRARD STATUE. 



REPORT 



OF THE 



SECRETARY OF THE COMMITTEE ON 
GIRARD STATUE. 



Through the beneficence of one man the world has 
been the annual recipient for forty-five years past of a 
body of young men well equipped, mentally and physi- 
cally, to take a leading part in her labors, so that at the 
present time there are four thousand men in the various 
walks of life who have been benefited and in turn are 
benefiting her through the medium of the training ac- 
quired under the legacy of Stephen Girard. Scattered 
as they are, an estimate of their value to mankind would 
be mere conjecture, but a comparison of the array of 
representatives of legislative bodies, of the bar, the pul- 
pit, the commercial house, the college faculty, and the 
skilled workshop, with the mass of penniless children 
from which they have been developed, gives absolute 
proof of the vast good resulting to humanity from the 
upward struggle of these four thousand, and, incidentally, 
from the endowment of their great benefactor. It was 
for the purpose of paying tribute to his memory that the 
Alumni of Girard College eagerly grasped the opportu- 
nity (the approach of the fiftieth anniversary of the ad- 
mission of boys into the institution) to present to his 
adopted city his statue, and, at the suggestion of the 
President of the Board of Directors of City Trusts, the 

7 



8 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 

custodians of the estate covered by the will, a committee 
of nine was appointed by the President of the Alumni, 
and a meeting for organization was held on December 17, 
1895. To this committee was given full power to erect 
a statue at a cost of ten thousand dollars, the fund to be 
made up of popular subscriptions. 

So encouraging were the responses to the committee's 
call for contributions that within one month, on January 
20, 1896, a circular was issued asking proposals for the 
work. Twenty-five sculptors submitted sketch models 
in competition, which were exhibited during the week of 
May 20. After carefully considering the models the 
committee rejected all of them, and requested five sculp- 
tors, selected from the competitors, to submit new 
sketches. This was done, and on June 20 the contract 
was awarded. 

Regular meetings of the committee were held, the 
work was closely inspected in its various stages, and 
suggestions were courteously considered by the sculptor. 
Though the time allowed for the work was brief, the 
statue was completed punctually and set in position on 
the west plaza of City Hall. 

The pedestal is of light gray granite and is nine feet 
one inch high. Surmounting this is the figure, made of 
standard bronze, which, with the plinth, carries the total 
height of the statue to eighteen feet four inches. On the 
front of the pedestal, in addition to the name of Girard 
and the dates of his birth and death, is cut in granite a 
bass-relief of the ship " Water-Witch." On one side of 
the pedestal is a bronze panel representing Girard's 
career as " Mariner and Merchant," and on the opposite 
side another bronze panel exemplifying the philanthropic 
view of his life in a reproduction of the Main Building 
of Girard College, while on the rear of the pedestal is cut 
in granite the inscription, " Philadelphia's Greatest Phi- 



REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 9 

lanthropist. Erected by the Alumni of Girard College 
and the People of this City and Commonwealth, 1897." 

Within the figure were placed two copper cylinders, 
hermetically sealed, containing the following papers : 

Copy of the Will of Stephen Girard. 

Act of Assembly creating the Board of Directors of 
City Trusts. 

Abstracts from other wills under the jurisdiction of 
the Board. 

Reports of the Board of Directors of City Trusts for 
1S95 and 1896. 

Cards of admission to the Girard College for various 
celebrations from 1887 to 1896, and visitor's ticket for 
1897. 

Acknowledgment of gifts to the library of Girard Col- 
lege. 

Course of study at Girard College. 

Photographs of the main building of Girard College 
and of the entrance to the grounds. 

Report of the unveiling of the Stephen Girard Memo- 
rial Tablet in the chapel at Girard College, November 

19. 1895- 

Circulars of the Girard Statue Committee. 

List to May 15, 1897, of the subscribers to the statue 
fund. 

Order of exercises for the unveiling, May 20, 1897. 

Steel and Garnet for May, 1897. 

The Sunday Press for May 16, 1897. 

The Philadelphia Record, May 17, 1897. 

The Public Ledger, May 17, 1897. 

Order of exercises of the Stephen Girard Lodge at the 
Masonic Home, Sunday afternoon, May 16, 1897. 

Thursday, May 20, 1897, the one hundred and forty- 
seventh anniversary of the birth of Stephen Girard, was 
an ideal dav. Nature vied with man in makine the 



lO REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 

celebration a fit one. The figure of Girard was embraced 
in the soft folds of two flags, which seemed to glory in 
covering him with the honor due by his native and his 
adopted countries. To the right and left of the statue 
arose platforms occupied by the speakers and the in- 
vited guests of the Alumni, embracing officials of the 
nation, commonwealth, and municipality. Directly op- 
posite towered another stand, on which were seated 
pupils and officers of Girard College. More than one 
thousand Alumni, preceded by their band of music and 
followed by five hundred ununiformed pupils of Girard 
College, and the battalion of Girard College Cadets, 
numbering five hundred, and accompanied by its band, 
forming a stately column a mile in length, marched from 
the Alumni House down Broad Street to Pine Street, 
and countermarched to a position directly in front of 
the statue, after being reviewed by the Governor of Penn- 
sylvania and the Mayor of Philadelphia. The published 
programme of the ceremonies was carried out without 
the slightest interruption. 

The Committee on Girard Statue, in presenting the 
accompanying volume, concludes its task. Its service 
has been one of love, and it trusts that the work accom- 
plished will be instrumental in nurturing in the minds of 
our people the principles which have made the name of 
Girard to be honored in all parts of the globe nearly 
three-quarters of a century after his death. 

W. Wallace Alexander, 
Secretary Girard Statue Committee. 
Philadelphia, June lo, 1897. 



REPORT OF THE CHIEF MARSHAL. 



REPORT 



OF THE 



CHIEF MARSHAL. 



I HAVE the honor, as Chief Marshal of the parade in 
connection with the unveiling ceremonies of the Statue 
of Stephen Girard on May 20, 1897, to report as follows : 

I received the official notice of my appointment on 
February 25, 1897. On May 13 I issued the following 
order : 

Head-quarters, Girard College Alumni, 
1502 Poplar Street, Philadelphia, May 13, 1897. 
General Order. 

The following information is hereby given out for the guidance of the 
Girard College Alumni on May 20, 1897 : 

1. The following are hereby appointed Aides on the Staff of the Mar- 
shal: 

George S. Windle. 
Thomas Flood. 
Robert Erskine. 
Herman A. Teufel. 
Wm. E. Douglass. 
George James. 

2. Herman A. Teufel is hereby appointed Chief of Staff. 

3. Walter R. vSellers is hereby appointed orderly to the Marshal. 

4. The formation of the parade will commence at one o'clock, and all 
are requested to be present as soon after that time as possible. 

(a) The band will report to the Adjutant at 1. 30 o'clock, and will take 
up its position on Poplar Street below 15th Street. 

[d) The Staff will assemble on Poplar Street west of 15th Street. 

13 



14 REPORT OF THE CHIEF MARSHAL. 

[c] The graduates from the earliest classes to l88o, inclusive, will report 
to Aides Blascheck and Windle, and will form on Poplar Street between 

15 th and 1 6th Streets. 

{(/) The graduates from 1881 to 1892, inclusive, who do not belong to 
any Class organization, will report to Aides Flood and Douglass, and will 
form on 1 6th Street north of Poplar Street. 

(if) The classes that are organized will report to Aide Teufel, and will 
form in order of seniority on Poplar Street west of i6th Street. 

{/) All other graduates and former students will report to Aides Erskine 
and James, and will form on i6th Street below Poplar. 

[g) The Aides will report to the Adjutant when their respective divisions 
are in readiness to move, which must be before 1. 45, as the parade will 
start promptly at that time. 

5. All paraders will wear dark clothes, black derby hats, and white 
gloves. Canes will be on sale at the Club House for a small sum. Badges 
will be provided for the paraders, and the wearing of these badges will 
admit the graduates to the College in the evening. 

6. The parade will start at 1. 45 P.M. sharp and will proceed down Pop- 
lar Street to Broad ; down Broad to Pine Street, passing on the east side 
of the Public Buildings ; countermarch at Pine Street ; march up Broad 
Street and take position on the west side of the Public Buildmgs. 

7. The parade will be reviewed at the Union League by the Governor 
of Pennsylvania and others. When passing the reviewing stand the 
mounted officers will salute by raising the hat, commanders of sections 
and platoons will salute with the cane in the manner prescribed for com- 
missioned officers in the United States Drill Regulations. None others 
will salute. 

8. On the return of the column to the Public Buildings, when the head 
of the column has turned to the west, the Alumni will halt. The College 
Battalion will march through the Public Buildings, entering by the south 
entrance and coming out the west, and will take up the position assigned 
them. Then the Alumni column will march to its place and close in 
mass. 

All paraders are cautioned against breaking ranks at this time, but will 
march in an orderly manner to their position. Failure to do this will 
occasion great disorder and confusion. 

9. After the exercises at the monument the parade will be dismissed. 

10. The Marshal expects that throughout both the parade and the exer- 
cises strict military discipline will be maintained by all, as in this way only 
can a creditable showing be made and the parade a success. 

By Order of 

Daniel W. Bussinger, Chief Marshal. 
Thos. W. Wood, Adjutant. 



REPORT OF THE CHIEF MARSHAL. 1 5 

The members of the Alumni and pupils of Girard Col- 
lege met promptly at the Girard College Alumni House, 
Fifteenth and Poplar Streets, on the afternoon of May 20. 
The right of the line consisted of seventeen hundred 
and sixty-six of the Alumni and pupils. The parade 
was headed by forty-six survivors of the first hundred 
pupils admitted to the College. The other members 
followed in the order of their graduation. Following 
these came the ununiformed College boys to the num- 
ber of five hundred. The marching of these young 
boys received much applause along the route. Then 
came the battalion of Girard College Cadets, five hun- 
dred and thirty in number, headed by the College band. 
As usual, the Cadets marched like veterans and ac- 
quitted themselves in a manner that could scarcely be 
excelled. 

The line started promptly at 1.30 p.m. and marched 
over the route selected by the Committee. 

In closing, I wish to tender my hearty thanks to the 
members of my staff and to my Aides for their generous 
and efficient support; to Captain Frank A. Edwards, 
United States Army, in the command of the battalion of 
Cadets, and to the members of the Alumni and pupils of 
Girard College, for their aid in making the parade such 
a great success. 

Thanking you for the honor you have conferred upon 
me, I am, 

Most respectfully, 

Daniel W. Bussinger, 

Chief Marshal. 



ORDER OF EXERCISES AT THE UNVEILING OF 
THE STEPHEN GIRARD STATUE. 



ORDER OF PARADE. 

The Parade will form at Poplar and Fifteenth Streets, in the following order: 

I. Chief Marshal and Staff. 

Daniel W. Bussinger, '58, Chief Marshal. 

Adjutant, Thomas W. Wood, '94. Orderly, Walter R. Sellers, '96. 

Chief of Staff, Herman A. Teufel, '92. 

Aides. 
Robert Erskine, '85, William E. Douglass, '92, 

George S. Windle, '71, Thomas Flood, '81, 

George James, '92. 

II. Municipal Band of Philadelphia E. D. Beale, Leader. 

III. GiRARD College Alumni — in order of Seniority. 

IV. Pupils of Girard College — Ununiformed. 

V. Girard College Band and Field Music. 

1st Lieutenant Thomas M. GrifTenberg, Leader. 
John W. Dady, Drum Major. 

VI. Girard College Cadets. 

Captain, Frank A. Edwards, 1st Cavalry, U.S.A., Commanding. 

ist Lieutenant and Adjutant, Louis Stotz. 

ist Lieutenant and Quartermaster, Howard S. Kenney. 

Company A. 
Captain, Murten J. Emery. 
1st Lieutenant, Henry W. Snyder. 2d Lieutenant, James R. Osmun. 

Company B. 

Captain, Loughlin F. McNeill. 

ist Lieutenant, WMlliam Kelley. 2d Lieutenant, William Koegel. 

Company C. 
Captain, John A. McCullough. 
1st Lieutenant, William Hatton. 2d Lieutenant, Henry F. Morton. 

Company D. 
Captain, Frederick W. Firth. 
1st Lieutenant, Richard L. Williams. 2d Lieutenant, Peter Britt. 

Company E. 

Captain, William S. Sechler. 

ist Lieutenant, Jacob H. Rowbotham. 2d Lieutenant, Philip M. Ott. 

Company F. 

Captain, Bertram E. Dickinson. 

1st Lieutenant, Joseph T. Hill. 2d Lieutenant, William J. Davis. 

Sergeant Major, Samuel B. Wilson. 

Quartermaster Sergeant, William Schmeller. 

Color Sergeants, Walter W. Beaumont, William J. McCrosson. 

VII. At 1.30 P.M., the column will move South on Broad Street to Locust 
Street, and countermarch to the City Hall. 

VIII. Governor Daniel H. Hastings and Staff will review the parade from the 
balcony of the Union League House. 

19 



ORDER OF EXERCISES. 



1. Music — " Morning, Noon, and Night" Suppe. 

Municipal Band, E. D. Beale, Leader. 

2. Introductory Remarks by the Chairman, General Louis Wagner. 

3. Prayer Rev. Winfield S. Baer, '74. 

4. Chorus — " Mj- Country, 'tis of Thee" .... Pupils of Girard College. 

Under the direction of Professor Jerry March. 

5. Oration Hon. James M. Beck. 

6. Unveiling of the Statue by the youngest pupils of the College, 

Lloyd W. McFetridge and Chester H. Richards. 

7. Salute Battalion of Girard College Cadets and the 

Pupils of Girard College. 

8. Music — i. "The Star-Spangled Banner." 

2. " The Marseillaise." 
Girard College Band, Thomas M. GrifTenberg, Leader. 

9. Presentation of the Sculptor, Mr. J. Massey Rhind, 

By the Chairman. 

10. Acceptance of the Statue . . . Hon. Charles F. Warwick, 

Mayor of Philadelphia. 

11. Chorus— " To Thee, O Country" Pupils of Girard College. 

Under the direction of Professor Jerry March. 

12. Address . Hon. Daniel H. Hastings, 

Governor of Pennsylvania. 

13. Music — " Greeting." 

Municipal Band, E. D. Beale, Leader. 
20 



COMMITTEE ON GIRARD STATUE. 

Chairman, George W. Jackson, '53. 

Vice- Chair man, Thomas P. Lonsdale, '71. 

Secretary, W. Wallace Alexander, '88. 

Treasurer, Louis Wagner. 
A. H. Fetterolf, Thomas Perrins, 

Robert J. Johnson, '70, Lawrence Farrell, '71, 

John Nolen, '84. 



RECEPTION COMMITTEE. 

Ja.mes H. WiNDRiM, '56, Chairman. 

Frank M. Highley, Secretary. 
John S. Boyd, F. Carroll Brewster, 

George W. Kendrick, Jr., George E. Kirkpatrick, 

Heber S. Thompson, Emil C. Wagner, 

Charles H. Dougherty, '54, William E. Littleton, '55, 

William H. Kilpatrick, '54, Theodore L. DeBow, '57, 

Harry Brocklehurst, '71, Frank F. Bell, '71, 

John Norris, '72, Robert J. Nickell, '73, 

Frederick A. DeBurlo, '78, Herman C. Horn, '81, 

Frank O. Zesinger, '82, Frederick Unrath, '88, 

Francis J. Boas, '88. 



COMMITTEE OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF 
CITY TRUSTS. 

John H. Michener, Chairman. 
Edwin S. Stuart, Louis Wagner. 



2X 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 
BY GENERAL LOUIS WAGNER, CHAIRMAN. 




STATUE OF STEPHEN GIRARD AND NEW CITY HALL, PHILADELPHIA. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS OF GENERAL LOUIS 
WAGNER, AS CHAIRMAN OF THE MEETING AT 
THE UNVEILING OF THE STATUE OF STEPHEN 
GIRARD, CITY HALL PLAZA, MAY 20, 1897. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, — Mrs. Ellen E. Girard, a 
grand-niece of Stephen Girard, desiring to honor, in an 
enduring manner, the great services rendered our City 
by her distinguished kinsman during the frightful epi- 
demic of yellow fever in 1793, caused to be placed in 
the chapel of the Girard College a beautiful white marble 
tablet, suitably inscribed, which was unveiled on Novem- 
ber 19, 1895. 

The Hon. F. Carroll Brewster, in eloquent and fitting 
words, presented the tablet to the Institution, and inci- 
dentally referred to the fact that nowhere in Philadelphia 
outside the walls of the College, was there to be found 
the slightest recognition of the great things that Mr. 
Girard had done for our City. 

All were impressed with this statement, and the Presi- 
dent of the Board of Directors of City Trusts, in his 
reply to Judge Brewster's address, suggested that the 
year 1897, the fiftieth year of the admission of the first 
boys into the Girard College, which was formally and 
officially opened on January i, 1848, was the proper 
year, and the 20th of May, the birthday of Mr. Girard 
the day when this long-delayed duty should be dis- 
charged. 

This suggestion commended itself to those present, 
and shortly after the Girard College Alumni Association 

25 



26 BY GENERAL LOUIS WAGNER. 

appointed a Committee, composed of graduates of the 
College and of other citizens of Philadelphia, with au- 
thority to proceed with the work of erecting a statue of 
their benefactor. 

Their work is finished, and we stand to-day before this 
figure of Philadelphia's greatest philanthropist, cast of 
enduring bronze and placed upon a pedestal of ever- 
lasting granite, still enfolded by the flags of his native 
and of his adopted country. 

The eloquent gentlemen who will address us will tell 
of Girard and of his marvellously grand beneficences to 
City and State ; and it is for me only to indicate the pur- 
pose for which we have assembled, but permit the 
thought that when these glorious colors shall float aloft 
and we shall see the grand figure of the man who 
described himself as " Mariner and Merchant," we bow 
reverently before the memory of the man whom we call 
Patriot and Philanthropist: the father of thousands of 
poor orphan boys who by his bounty bec9me honest 
and intelligent citizens. 

The Rev. Winfield S. Baer, one of our boys, a gradu- 
ate of the Class of 1874, a minister of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, and the private Secretary of the 
Bishop of this Diocese, will invoke the Divine blessing. 



PRAYER BY REV. WINFIELD S. BAER, '74. 



PRAYER. 

BY REV. WINFIELD S. BAER. 



Almighty God, our heavenly Father, the giver of all 
good gifts, we yield Thee hearty thanks for the manifold 
blessings, both social and individual, with which Thou 
hast gifted this our land. Above all, do we yield Thee 
praise and glory that of Thy good providence Thou didst 
put into the mind of him in whose memory we meet this 
day the good desire to manifest love for his fellows in 
devoting his substance to their good in many ways, but 
more especially in the founding of the institution which 
is called by his name. Direct the managers of this trust 
in all their doings with Thy most gracious favor, and 
further them with Thy continual help ; endue the officers 
and teachers of this institution with such wisdom and 
patience that those who are committed to their care and 
guidance may develop into virtuous men and loyal citi- 
zens ; grant that we and all others who enjoy this bounty 
may ever show forth our thanks for the same by lives of 
truth and love. So rule the hearts of the Governor of 
this State and the Mayor of the city which he loved so 
well that they may ever seek Thy honor and glory ; and 
so pour into the hearts of all citizens that most excellent 
gift of charity that they may follow his noble example 
of loving service by the consecration of their time and 
wealth to the care of the sick, the relief of the distressed, 
the training of the young, the visiting the fatherless and 
the widow in their affliction. 

All this we humbly ask in the name of Him who, 
being rich, for our sakes became poor, that we might be 
made rich through Him, our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. Amen. 

29 



ORATION BY HON. JAMES M. BECK. 




PANEL ON PEDESTAL OF STATUE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 




PANEL ON PEDESTAL OF STATUE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



ORATION ON STEPHEN GIRARD. 

BY HON. JAMES M. BECK. 



We are met to-day, my fellow-citizens, to repay in some 
slight measure a sacred debt to the dead. It is not cred- 
itable to Philadelphia that this obligation of gratitude is 
so long overdue. Sixty-six years ago, when the hallowed 
joys of Christmas-tide gladdened the hearts of our people 
and the merry laughter of children resounded in their 
homes, an old man, as full of grief as years, without 
wife to smooth his dying pillow or children to receive 
his parting blessing, wearily sank into the dreamless 
sleep of the dead and rested forevermore from his labors. 
Years before he had experienced that compensation 
of long life, to which Prince Bismarck gave such feel- 
ing testimony not many days ago, when he said, " One 
of the advantages of becoming old is that one be- 
comes indifferent to hatred, insult, and calumny, while 
one's capacity for good-will and love is increased." It 
did not require the winter of age to give Girard this 
serenity of mind, for his heroic soul had ever felt that 
conscious integrity of purpose which made him indifferent 
to either the censure or praise of his fellow-men. For 
many years he had cherished in the depths of his impen- 
etrable soul as lofty and noble a purpose as ever ani- 
mated the mind or heart of man. To suffer and be silent, 
to labor and to reap, that he might live forever in an 
eternity of benefaction. Unmindful of the malevolent 

3 33 



34 ORATION 

criticism of his fellow-men, indififerent to their reckless 
perversion of his motives, sparing himself no reasonable 
exertion of mind or body by day or night, denying him- 
self the luxuries of afHuence, working while the day 
of life remained, until his blinded vision and palsied hand 
could not find the door of his bank, " Old Girard," as 
his fellow-citizens somewhat contemptuously called him, 
kept bravely on in his appointed way, until with parting 
blessing and dying hand he gave to the city that he 
loved so well the accumulated product of his self-denying 
labors. And yet until to-day the city which he made 
the legatee of an imperial fortune had not raised so 
much as one stone upon another to attest its gratitude 
for services so distinguished and sublime. 

Memorials there are of Stephen Girard, but they owe 
their existence to his own bounty. Delaware Avenue, 
which should have received his name, for whose con- 
struction and maintenance he provided a princely en- 
dowment, near to whose front he lived in modest sim- 
plicity for sixty years, and from whose docks his vessels 
sailed to the farthest ports of the world, is a monument 
to his far-seeing sagacity and public spirit. The Bank of 
Stephen Girard still exists to attest a patriotism which 
was willing to risk all for the honor of the country. The 
many institutions of religion and charity, to which in life 
he was a constant and generous contributor, still perform 
their gracious ministrations of mercy in part through 
his bounty, and should ever remind us of his noble 
catholicity of spirit, which knew no race, creed, or na- 
tionality in his benefactions. The orphaned children, 
whose tears he has wiped away, and whose lives of use- 
fulness and honor owe so much to his self-sacrifice, are 
living memorials of Girard, *' not made with hands," 
and to stand " eternal in the heavens" in proof of his 
nobility of purpose. The college which bears his 



BY HON. JAMES M. BECK. 35 

name, — in all the diadem of Philadelphia's charities its 
richest jewel, — from which as from an unfailing foun- 
tain-head a stream of benefaction flows, is in an especial 
sense his memorial. Its central temple, reflecting in its 
white and enduring marble the flawless purity of his 
purpose and the indestructible permanence of his work, 
whose perfect art fitly symbolizes the moral beauty 
which called it into being, and at whose portal he stands 
in effigy welcoming forever his parentless wards, is his 
tomb. No warrior or king has a nobler. A child of 
no century, but a fit companion for the ages, a thousand 
years will but enhance its charms, for its perfect beauty 
time cannot wither nor custom stale. Of this temple — 
not of superstition, but of love — the spirit of Girard 
could say in the words of Horace : 

♦' Exegi monumentum sere perennius 
Regalique situ pyramidum altius." 

All this Philadelphia has accepted from his hands, but 
what has she ever given in return for a gift so imperial 
in its munificence ? 

That great ethical teacher of our century, Carlyle, has 
well said that ** the character of a people is shown by the 
regard they have for their great men, their heroes, their 
benefactors." Measured by this standard, what must 
not be our humiliation, O men of Philadelphia ! In pro- 
portion to our just renown are we not wanting in civic 
pride and gratitude? Philadelphia, the great historic 
city of the western hemisphere and the birthplace of the 
noblest republic of all time, is too content to ignore its 
past, and speak with hesitating and depreciating terms 
of its future. The Philadelphian has no desire, like 
Sebastian in " Twelfth Night," to 

" satisfy our eyes 
With the memorials and things of fame 
That do renown this city." 



36 ORATION 

Unique among American cities in having a founder, 
she can rejoice in her paternity, for Penn was one of the 
choice spirits of all times ; and yet the city can be 
searched in vain for any adequate statue of him, whose 
very name is inseparably linked with our great Common- 
wealth, unless we except the huge bronze finial to yonder 
tower. Franklin, whose imperishable fame fills two hemi- 
spheres, and who was so honorably identified with the 
city of his adoption, has no appropriate monument to 
recall his public services. The man who " wrested the 
lightnings from the heavens and the sceptre from tyrants" 
rests in the neglected corner of an abandoned cemetery. 
Robert Morris, whose patriotic services were rewarded 
by his grateful countrymen by two years' confinement 
in a debtors' jail, has not even a tablet to recall to our 
sluggish memories his patriotic achievements. We have 
honored Columbus and forgotten Fulton, Fitch, and 
Evans, whose influence upon the human race is only 
secondary to the Genoese pilot. Humboldt stands in 
bronze before us, but we search in vain for effigies of 
Rittenhouse, Bartram, Kane, Rush, Gross, and Leidy. 
Schubert has his memorial, Sully, Peale, West, and 
Walter, none. Joan of Arc is not ignored, but the 
cavalier of our heroic age, " Mad Anthony Wayne," 
or the intrepid youth, Decatur, are unhonored and 
almost forgotten. We have paid our tribute to Goethe 
and Schiller, but none to Carey, Poe, Taylor, Forrest, 
Read, or Whitman. It is true that Gross has his monu- 
ment and Rush is to be similarly honored, but the loca- 
tion of their statues is not the city of their labors, — but 
Washington. 

But " worse remains behind." Our city has not only 
forgotten Girard's public services, but has permitted his 
memory to be blackened with almost no word of protest 
in his behalf. The commonly accepted picture of Girard, 



BY HON. JAMES M. BECK. 37 

which represents him " as a man of few friends, crabbed 
and unapproachable, in religion a sceptic, personal habits 
a miser, as a master exacting and hard" (see Chambers's 
Encyclopaedia), is a gross and dishonest caricature of a 
great and noble man. If any line of it be true, it is that 
which refers to his supposed irreligion. As to this, it 
may be said that if he was heterodox in profession, he 
was orthodox in practice. While he did not actively 
attach himself to any denomination, he was a generous 
contributor to all. His religious convictions no one will 
ever know. They remained veiled in the unsearchable 
recesses of his soul. But we do know that he made no 
pretensions that he was not willing to make good in 
deeds. Whatever else he was, he was no hypocrite. 
" My deeds," he would say, " must be my life. When 
I am dead, my actions must speak for me." Tested by 
this arduous standard, he was pre-eminently a Chris- 
tian in spirit if not in creed, for he was content to follow 
the spiritual leader of Christianity where few have fol- 
lowed Him, — to a martyr's death. That he did not 
perish on his Calvary at Bush Hill matters not. The 
"readiness is all." Let us ever remember, in the clash- 
ing of our creeds, that it was not the orthodox Levite, 
who professed much and did little, but the heretical 
Samaritan who succored the stricken, to whom was given 
the eternal commendation of the Master. If ever man de- 
served the name of good Samaritan, it is he whose virtues 
we to-day commemorate. To him life itself was not too 
rich a sacrifice to make upon the altar of humanity. 
His hand was ever open to the cry of the worthy poor, 
and no appeal to him to help the destitute ever fell upon 
deaf ears. Thrice in awful periods of distress, when a 
fearful scourge slew its thousands in our midst, when the 
wisest became fools and the bravest cowards, when 
neither the lust of money nor the love of humanity could 



SS ORATION 

secure succor for the stricken, this so-called infidel offered 
the supreme sacrifice of his life to stay the ravages of the 
pestilence. None greater could be made, for his godlike 
heroism in three fateful summers touched the high-water- 
mark of human courage and fulfilled the noblest ideal 
of self-abnegation. If " he that doeth the will of my 
Father which is in heaven," and not he who merely 
mouths " Lord, Lord," is the true Christian, — and we 
have the authority of the founder of Christianity for this 
belief, — if it be the essence of ** pure religion and unde- 
filed before God and the Father to visit the fatherless 
and widows in their affliction," — and high apostolic au- 
thority has so defined it, — then Girard's account, when 
called for final audit before the Judge who knows all and 
whose supreme prerogative of judgment none may usurp, 
may not be as bankrupt as narrow souls would have us 
believe. Let those only cast a stone at Girard's irreligion 
who have done greater good in their lives, and his mem- 
ory will not suffer. 

Much of the popular misconception of his character is 
due to his first biographer. Shortly after his death, an 
obscure clerk in his bank, whom he had saved from 
beggary and had been obliged to discipline for gross 
misconduct, published a biography which for mendacious 
malevolence has almost no equal in Hterature. What 
an infinite pity that, while we can devise regulations 
to keep dogs out of the cemeteries, we cannot protect 
the immortal part of man, his reputation, from like pro- 
fanation. Thus was perpetuated all the back-alley gossip 
and social tittle-tattle of Girard's time, and the vitality of 
a lie, when it affects the character of a great man, was in 
his case aptly illustrated, for posterity has almost forgot- 
ten the nobility of his life, and only treasured the petty 
scandal of his envious neighbors. Many reasons conspired 
to make him a target for malicious criticism. He was a 



BY HON. JAMES M. BECK. 39 

Frenchman, and the prejudice of race — the baleful heri- 
tage of the centuries — would account for much. This 
was intensified by his supposed irreligion. He lived in 
an unhappy time, when religious differences divided 
men and narrowed their souls. I need only instance the 
illustrious Priestley, who, driven from England by re- 
ligious bigotry, was received with equal intolerance in 
America, and only found in the wilds of nature an 
asylum from social persecution. Girard, as an avowed 
admirer of the iconoclastic sage of Ferney, Voltaire, in- 
curred the impartial dislike of all the warring religious 
bodies. His political opinions also won him the enmity 
of many. Never was party strife marked with greater 
intensity of spirit. The malignity with which the Re- 
publicans pursued Washington and threatened to mob 
Adams was only matched by the supercilious arrogance 
of the Federalists, who regarded their opponents as 
mere sa?is adottes and their noble leaders as Marats, 
Dantons, and Robespierres. It was a bitter conflict 
between a modified English Toryism and the radical 
spirit of the French Revolution. The amenities of life 
were forgotten, and Girard, who became an ardent and 
active disciple of Jefferson, doubtless incurred his share 
of the consequent odium. His personal peculiarities like- 
wise added to the prejudices of his fellow-citizens. His 
blind eye, stern countenance, brusque manner, impene- 
trable reticence, broken English, old-fashioned dress and 
blunt candor, all gained for him the ridicule of the 
thoughtless and the criticism of the malicious. Above 
all, he was guilty in the eyes of the world of the unpar- 
donable sin of being successful. In commerce and finance 
he was as undisputed a master as Napoleon was in the 
tented field and cabinet. No competitor ever measured 
strength with him without feeling his superior industry, 
sagacity, and courage. He had a wonderful clearness 



40 ORATION 

of vision, sound common sense, unwearying application, 
and, above all, the courage of his convictions. With 
his one eye he saw more than his competitors with two. 
While they slept, he thought ; while they pleasured, he 
worked. Had Philadelphia had less of the dry-rot of 
family pride and more of his cosmopolitan spirit, she 
would be to-day the London of the Western world, with 
New York but its Liverpool. His business facilities 
were poor, compared with the natural advantages of to- 
day. It is as easy now to effect an exchange with Hong- 
Kong as it was in his day with Pittsburg. No telegraph 
or cable gave him instantaneous communication with 
the world, and no daily newspaper placed the news of 
the preceding twenty-four hours on his breakfast table. 
The ocean was swept by pirates and privateers, and rail- 
roads and steamships were unknown. And yet what 
merchant of to-day in Philadelphia has in an equal de- 
gree his cosmopolitan spirit. From his counting-room 
in Water Street he directed with marvellous sagacity 
the movements of his vessels to every port and over 
every sea. The poor mariner who was driven by Howe's 
fleet into Delaware Bay, and thus by accident located 
in Philadelphia, and who began his business career in 
Water Street by selling anything that promised a profit, 
became, despite every disadvantage of race, faith, tongue, 
and poverty, the richest merchant of his time. The only 
witchcraft of his " Water- Witch" were the three guiding 
principles of his life, which he directed should be in- 
stilled in the minds of his scholars, " truth, sobriety, and 
industry." These virtues could win for him success, but 
not the good-will of his fellow-men. 

Let us briefly recall the principal facts of his life. He 
was born in Bordeaux, France, this day one hundred and 
forty-seven years ago. A heritage of knightly achieve- 
ment was his. His grandfather was a " captain, master, 



BY HON. JAMES M. BECK. 4 1 

and patron" in the French navy, and his father was knighted 
by Louis XV. for distinguished bravery in a naval con- 
flict. At an early age he lost an eye by an accident, and 
the ridicule of his thoughtless comrades added to his 
natural reserve and in some measure checked the geni- 
ality of his soul. He had lost his mother at an early 
age, and the remarriage of his father made his home so 
uncongenial that at the age of seventeen he obtained 
his father's permission to go to sea. Commencing as a 
cabin-boy, he was gradually advanced by merit until, in 
his twenty-third year, he was made by special appoint- 
ment a " captain, master, and patron" of a merchant 
vessel. For ten years the sea remained, as he afterwards 
said, his ** nurse," — a rough nurse, it is true ; and yet from 
its winds and waves he gained a knowledge which, by 
the alchemy of genius, he transmuted into his vast 
tre^isures of gold. In May, 1776, his ship was driven by 
fog and storm into Delaware Bay, from which Howe's 
blockading fleet made exit dangerous. With his won- 
derful capacity for adapting himself to adverse circum- 
stances, he sold his vessel and, without friends in Phila- 
delphia or any knowledge of its language, purchased a 
modest store on Water Street, and the mariner became a 
merchant. 

On June 6, 1777, he married a young and beautiful 
Philadelphia girl, named Mary Lum, the daughter of a 
ship-builder. I may here instance one form of the 
malignant criticism with which Girard's memory has 
been assailed. It is generally believed that their married 
life was most unhappy ; and it has even been suggested 
that the terrible affliction of insanity, which overtook 
Mrs. Girard eight years after their marriage, was the 
result of his cruelty. The letters, however, which passed 
between Stephen and his brother Jean, between whom 
existed a constant and beautiful brotherly affection, show 



42 ORATION 

almost conclusively that the affections of Girard and his 
wife were warm and tender, and that the latter was not 
as destitute of social graces as has been commonly 
supposed. Their felicity was only shadowed by her 
failure to bear children, of which Girard was passion- 
ately fond, and was ended only by the terrible afflic- 
tion which prostrated Mrs. Girard and deprived her of 
reason. His brother Jean, in a letter to Stephen, writ- 
ten at the time, in which he speaks of " knowing the 
regard and love you bear your wife," added this sug- 
gestive conjecture : " I presume that the grief which 
this lovely woman has always shown to me at having 
no children is the cause of her misfortune, to which 
it is necessary to be resigned as to the will of God." 
Girard watched over her with affectionate solicitude. 
Some temporary signs of improvement encouraged the 
stricken husband to plan a visit to France for the 
further improvement of her health. Unfortunately, 
however, the faint glimmer of light in her mind soon 
deepened into the lasting night of permanent insanity. 
The physicians called in consultation unanimously ad- 
vised her removal to the Pennsylvania Hospital, where, 
with her mind in total blindness, she remained until her 
death. That which gave an added pang to this terrible 
affliction was the birth of a daughter a few months after 
her entry into the hospital. The child lived but a few 
months. 

Thus Girard, practically orphaned by the remarriage 
of his father, childless, and worse than wifeless, found 
himself alone in the residence in which he had com- 
menced his married life so auspiciously, and whose walls 
he had hoped would resound with that joyous prattle 
of children, of which an Oriental proverb has well said, 
" Sweet is the music of the lute to him who has not heard 
the laughter of his children." Bravely he bore his cross, 



BY HON. JAMES M. BECK. 43 

and endeavored to find relief for his tortured mind in 
incessant labor. He writes to a friend, " As to myself, I 
live like a galley slave, often passing the whole night 
without sleeping. I am wrapped up in a labyrinth of 
anxieties and am worn out with care. I do not value 
fortune. The love of labor is my highest ambition." In 
another letter he wrote : " When I rise in the morning, 
my only effort is to labor so hard that when night comes 
I may be enabled to sleep soundly." As if to further 
disprove the base assertion that Girard was cruel to his 
wife and was insensible of feeling, the testimony of an 
eye-witness, who was present at Mrs. Girard's burial, 
may be recalled with profit. He says, *' I shall never 
forget the last and closing scene. We all stood about 
the coffin, and Mr. Girard, filled with emotion, stepped 
forward, kissed his wife's corpse, and his tears moist- 
ened her cheek. When the coffin was lowered into 
the grave, a long silence ensued, after which Girard bent 
over and bestowed a last look upon his dead wife ; then 
turning from the new-made grave, he simply said to 
Samuel Coates, * It is very well,' and returned to his des- 
olate home." 

Sorrow embitters some men, and with others it but 
softens the heart and ennobles its impulses. The latter 
was the case with Girard. From the time he was denied 
the pleasure of either wife or children, he became sym- 
pathetic with every form of human distress. While he 
had only detestation for the lazy beggar who could 
work but would not, and never placed a premium 
upon idleness or extravagance by indiscriminate acts of 
charity, yet the needy and deserving poor found in him 
a sympathetic friend and helper. If his manner were 
brusque and at times repellent, his acts more than atoned 
for such want of urbanity. In the rigor of winter, he 
would share his fuel with the shivering poor and neglect 



44 ORATION 

his bank and counting-house to nurse an old colored 
servant in his household. 

In the fearful summer of 1793, his moral worth and 
fearless spirit shone forth like a star in the darkest night. 
It was the most terrible affliction that Philadelphia has 
ever known or, please God, is like to know. Horrible 
as was the reign of terror which was then raging in 
Paris and staining its streets with blood, its terrors were 
surpassed by those of the yellow fever in Philadelphia. 
The guillotine was not more terrible than the black 
vomit. The carts that daily carried their victims to the 
knife did not exceed in horror those which conveyed the 
shrieking victims of the plague to Bush Hill. The 
scythe of death reaped as rich a harvest here as there. 
Men can with equanimity face a known and visible terror, 
but the bravest hearts are appalled by the " pestilence that 
walketh in darkness and the destruction that wasteth at 
noonday." Against the machinations of a Danton or a 
Marat men could in a measure guard themselves, but 
the invisible disease which struck down the victim with- 
out warning as with an unseen bolt of lightning, and 
subjected him to a loathsome and horrible death, baffled 
their precautions. What wonder, then, that when the 
presence of the plague became known about the middle 
of August, 1793, a panic seized the hearts of the people, 
which was as terrible and maddening as that in a 
crowded theatre when an alarm of fire is sounded. 

Although Philadelphia was then the political and com- 
mercial metropolis of the nation, all ordinary concerns of 
life were quickly forgotten in the mad rush to escape. 
The streets were crowded with fleeing families, who in 
the abandonment of their terror frequently left behind 
them not only homes but the stricken of their house- 
hold. Soon one-half of all the houses were deserted, 
and but twenty thousand inhabitants remained, chiefly 



BY HON. JAMES M. BECK. 45 

of the poorer classes. Of these a full fifth perished be- 
fore the work of death was done. Those who remained 
were stricken with the most abject terror. They locked 
themselves in their houses, and if, from necessity, they 
ventured abroad, they held a handkerchief soaked in 
vinegar tightly over their mouths. Social intercourse 
was suspended. The once prosperous city, but recently 
the scene of social gayety and thronged with the great 
men of the nation, became a great charnel-house. The 
Federal government moved to Germantown, while of its 
officials, Washington, Jefferson, and Knox hastily re- 
turned to their homes, and Hamilton only remained, be- 
cause stricken with the fever. The hum of industry 
ceased. Banks, libraries, business houses, inns, coffee- 
houses, and even churches closed their doors. The 
grass grew waist high in the streets. The only sound 
that broke their awful stillness was the lugubrious roar 
of a cannon, which was fired at intervals in the hope 
that the concussion would relieve the pestilential atmos- 
phere, or the wailing cry at intervals : ** Bring out your 
dead!" Coffins were piled near the State House for 
ready use, and the dead were immediately strapped to 
the shafts of a horse and dragged to the trenches in the 
potter's field and promiscuously buried. Some of those 
charged with this duty perished and others abandoned 
their gruesome work, and thus bodies for want of burial 
lay rotting in the highways. Whole families were swept 
away. Within twenty-four hours eleven perished under 
one roof. 

The universal terror so deadened every sensibility of 
the human heart that husbands deserted their wives, 
children their parents, parents their children. At the 
lazaretto at Bush Hill, in a mansion once occupied by 
the Hamiltons and later by John Adams, suitable 
nurses could not be procured by any offer of reward. 



46 ORATION 

Those who were hired belonged to the most depraved 
class and wasted the substance provided for the sick in 
riotous debauchery. Where the stately minuet had been 
danced by the culture and beauty of Philadelphia, the sick 
lay promiscuously huddled in overcrowded rooms, and 
under conditions of unspeakable squalor and filth. So 
great was the consequent mortality that to enter this 
charnel-house was justifiably regarded as to cross the 
threshold of death. To escape this fate the stricken in 
the city hid themselves in their houses, and preferred to 
die as rats in secret rather than be transferred to this 
loathsome abode of death. Brutal employes of the Over- 
seers of the Poor would search for these wretched vic- 
tims of the plague, as dog-catchers might a mongrel cur, 
and convey them, despite their shrieking protests, in an 
open cart to the lazaretto, where, more dead than alive, 
they would be laid upon a pallet just vacated by a corpse. 

Such was the awful condition of affairs, threatening 
the destruction of the city, when the Mayor, on Septem- 
ber 10, 1793, appealed for volunteers to relieve the Over- 
seers of the Poor. Of all that remained only ten re- 
sponded, and among them was Girard. It was a time 
that truly *' tried men's souls" as with fire, and this 
noble band merit eternal honor. Few of them enjoyed 
social prominence, for it is sadly true that those who 
shone in the dancing assemblies were conspicuous by 
their absence at Bush Hill. Of this Committee of Safety 
— between it and the Paris Committee of Safety, what a 
contrast ! — Girard became the master spirit. He visited 
the pest-house and reported its frightful condition. Who 
would volunteer to take charge of it ? A silence fell 
upon the committee. To volunteer seemed suicidal, and 
none could be justly asked to make that sacrifice. 

It was in that hour of supreme peril, the darkest that 
ever befell our city, that Stephen Girard and Peter Helm, 



BY HON. JAMES M. BECK. 47 

a noble Moravian, "commiserating," in the language of 
the minutes, " the calamitous state to which the sick 
may be reduced for want of suitable persons to superin- 
tend the hospital, voluntarily offered their services for 
that benevolent employment." Neither stopped to close 
up his affairs, although, as Helm subsequently told 
Charles Biddle, he never expected to return. That very 
afternoon found them at the hospital. They divided 
their work, and, if there be any distinction between 
these godlike heroes, Girard can justly claim the prefer- 
ence, as in the division of labor Helm selected the ex- 
terior, while Girard took the post of especial danger 
in the interior, where the air was laden with the pesti- 
lential breath of the dying and the exhalations of the 
dead. There he remained for two months from six to 
eight hours each day. No office of charity was too 
laborious or offensive. As an eye-witness to his heroism 
has recorded, he " had to encourage and comfort the 
sick, to hand them necessaries and medicines, to wipe 
the sweat off their brows, to perform many disgusting 
offices of kindness for them, which nothing could render 
tolerable but the exalted motives that impelled him to 
this heroic conduct." Ever at the head of the commit- 
tee's daily minutes is found the glorious record, "Stephen 
Girard and Peter Helm at the hospital." The first entry, 
in September, 1793, records Girard's courage in first visit- 
ing the hospital; its last, in March, 1794, his goodness 
in turning over to the committee money for the stricken. 
As though this were not enough, he employed his re- 
maining time in assisting in the dangerous and loath- 
some work of removing the dying and the dead from the 
houses. An eye-witness has given us a graphic picture 
of this noble man engaged in his sublime work. The 
former, having occasion to visit the worst infected district, 
found no one on the street, but suddenly its stillness 



48 ORATION 

was broken by the rattling of the wheels of a carriage, 
which was being rapidly driven by a negro. It halted in 
front of a frame building. The driver tied his handkerchief 
over his mouth, opened the carriage-door, and resumed 
his seat. A short, thick-set man alighted and entered 
the house. It was Stephen Girard. Soon he emerged 
from the house, carrying in his arms a man so large that 
he was obliged to drag him over the pavement. Both 
arms were about the patient, whose face rested upon 
Girard's cheek, while from his mouth there came the 
putrid effluvium that is characteristic of the disease. 
Girard, inhaling the breath of the patient with every step, 
lifted him, with great exertion, into the carriage, entered 
it and drove off. The records of human heroism can be 
searched in vain for any nobler or more courageous act. 
What higher sacrifice can a man make for humanity 
than his life ? The spiritual leader of our race could do 
no more. Cicero finely said, in his defence of Ligarius, 
that man can approach no nearer to God than in giving 
safety to men. Without depreciating the courage of the 
soldier, who for love of country, in defence of hearth 
and home and in the mad excitement of battle, encoun- 
ters some great momentary danger or " seeks the bubble, 
reputation, i' the cannon's mouth," yet even nobler was 
the peaceful achievement of Girard in challenging death 
by day and night to do its worst. As he moves among 
the dying, consoling them in their last bitter agony by 
kindly words or cooling their parched lips with water, 
he illustrates that just man of the Roman poet's fancy, 
whose firm resolution the thunderbolts of Jove could not 
shake and who faced universal disaster with an intrepid 
spirit. Or may we not better see in this record of sub- 
lime courage and supreme self-sacrifice the divine pro- 
tection which the inspired writer of the Ninety-first Psalm 
promised the fearless man : 



BY HON. JAMES M. BECK. 49 

" He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most 
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 

" Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the 
fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. 

" Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night ; nor 
for the arrow that flieth by day ; 

" Nor for the pestilence that walkcth in darkness ; nor 
for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 

" A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand 
at thy right hand ; but it shall not come nigh thee. 

'* There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any 
plague come nigh thy dwelling. 

" He shall call upon me, and I will answer him : I 
will be with him in trouble ; I will deliver him, and 
honor him. 

'* With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my 
salvation." 

The " long life" thus promised was vouchsafed him, 
and he dedicated it to the public good. It may be fairly 
questioned whether Philadelphia has ever had a more 
useful citizen. To every call of public duty he freely 
responded, and without regard to his private interests 
served his city, his commonwealth, and his nation in 
many positions of trust and honor. In 18 12, anticipa- 
ting with rare forethought the political disturbances in 
Europe, he drew out all the extensive credits which he 
had concentrated in the English banking house of Baring 
Brothers, and, although the shadows of war were falling 
upon our country, showed his faith in its future by pur- 
chasing all outstanding stock of the United States Bank, 
on the faith that it would be rechartered. When Con- 
gress refused to renew its corporate life, and thus ex- 
posed the accumulations of Girard to total loss, he 
showed his ability to overmaster adverse circumstance 
by purchasing the real and personal assets of the defunct 



50 ORATION 

institution and reopening it under the title of ''The 
Bank of Stephen Girard." As a financier he showed as 
great ability and the same patriotic spirit as he had as 
merchant and mariner. He became the financial pillar 
of the government at the time of its greatest weakness. 
Indeed, it is possible that without Girard the republic 
would have perished. 

In the year 1814, when the British soldiers had entered 
Washington and destroyed the capitol, when the army 
and navy were deficient in supplies, when gloom and 
despair pervaded all hearts, when the Hartford conven- 
tion had sounded its seditious note, when all others re- 
fused to advance the government the means to maintain 
the honor of the country, he had both the courage and 
the patriotism to stake his fortune on the future of the 
republic. The government in despair had attempted to 
float a loan of but five million dollars to continue the 
war, and had offered the extraordinary inducement to 
timid capital of interest at seven per cent, per annum, and 
a bonus of thirty per cent, of the principal. So com- 
pletely had capitalists lost faith in the government, that 
when the subscriptions were opened, but twenty thousand 
dollars had been subscribed. With the failure of the 
loan might have come the disbandment of the army, and 
a dishonorable and humiliating conclusion to the war. 
To subscribe to so large an amount, probably equivalent 
to his whole available fortune, in the face of such general 
timidity and despair, required unusual courage and pa- 
triotism. As in the yellow fever epidemic he had been fear- 
less when others proved cowards, in like spirit he stepped 
forth and pledged his entire fortune to enable the republic 
,to vindicate its honor and maintain its existence. The 
effect of this patriotic and courageous stand was most 
beneficial. Capitalists, whose patriotism had not equalled 
their timidity, were inspired by his example to renewed 



BY HON. JAMES M. BECK. 5 1 

faith in their country, its credit was thus saved from 
total paralysis and the war happily brought to a success- 
ful termination. His words, written to a correspondent 
in Bordeaux, in 181 5, best measure the lasting impor- 
tance of this result. " The peace which has taken place 
between this country and England will consolidate for- 
ever our independence and insure our tranquillity?" 

The conclusion of the war found the financial and com- 
mercial interests of the country in a state of collapse. 
Credit was paralyzed and panic reigned supreme. Girard 
again infused courage into the despondent hearts of his 
countrymen by expressing his willingness, as the largest 
holder of the public loans, to accept treasury notes in 
lieu of specie in payment of its interest charges. This 
signal expression of confidence in the solvency of the 
government gave new heart to timid capital and sent 
fresh blood coursing through the veins of business. 
Believing that the restoration of public credit would be 
further promoted by the re-establishment of the United 
States Bank, Girard publicly supported its recharter. 
When subscriptions of stock were finally invited and 
only an inconsiderable portion was taken, he again dis- 
played the broad public spirit and magnificent courage 
of his public life by subscribing to the entire balance, 
amounting to ^3,100,000. 

These are but illustrations of the extent and variety of 
his public services. To the very last he set a commend- 
able example of civic spirit, which succeeding genera- 
tions may profitably follow. In his eighty-second year 
he presided at a meeting of Philadelphia merchants, 
which was called for the purpose of constructing the 
present Merchants' Exchange building, and contributed 
ten thousand dollars. Notwithstanding his increasing 
infirmities of sight and hearing, he never Qeased to labor. 
Walking to his bank in his eighty-first year, he was run 



52 ORATION 

down by a wagon and severely injured. He bore the 
dressing of his wounds without flinching and with the 
stoical remark, " Go on, doctor, I am an old sailor. I 
can bear a great deal." Notwithstanding this accident, 
he was found in his eighty-first year walking the streets, 
crossing the threshold of his bank, and with blinded 
vision groping for the door-knob. A month before his 
death he stated the philosophy of his life in words 
worthy of a Roman stoic : 

" When Death comes for me, he will find me busy, 
unless I am asleep. If I thought I was going to die to- 
morrow, I should plant a tree nevertheless to-day." 

When were ever the words of the poet more happily 
paraphrased : 

" Life that dares send 
A challenge to his end, 
And when it comes, say, * Welcome, friend.' " 

The end came on December 26, 183 1. He had been 
ill for some weeks with a cold, which developed into 
pneumonia. On the day after Christmas, when else- 
where in Philadelphia there was festal rejoicing and 
happiness, this grand old man lay dying in his Water 
Street mansion. He suddenly arose and, with the last 
effort of his extraordinary bodily vigor, crossed the 
room. Placing his weak, thin hand against his forehead, 
he died with the simple exclamation of pain : " How 
violent is this disorder ! How extraordinary it is !" 

It has been said that the world has not known its 
greatest men. Certainly, its truest men have lacked 
adequate recognition. That our boasted civilization is, 
even in this evening of the nineteenth century, but a 
thin veneering of barbarism is shown by the fact that they 
only are pre-eminently great in the world's estimation 
who have trodden stormfully across its stage and ground 
their fellow-men under heels of iron. The oppressors 



BY HON. JAMES M. BECK. 53 

of the race alone escape the common fate of oblivion. 
They sit supreme, as Caesar in the arena, and before 
them the unending generations file and say : 

** Hail, Cresar ! we who are about to die salute thee." 

Thus contrast the vulgar deification of that incarnate 
iniquity, Napoleon, with the scant recognition of such an 
heroic soul as Stephen Girard. The one, despite his 
extraordinary genius, was the colossal charlatan of his 
age, the other, its greatest philanthropist. The one 
dedicated his life to his selfish and remorseless ambi- 
tion, the other to the happiness and permanent welfare 
of humanity. The one caused countless tears to flow, 
the other has wiped them away. The one made orphans, 
the other has cared for them. Upon the soul of one is 
the blood of three millions of his fellow-beings, but his 
power of evil has gone. He can kill no more. The 
benefactions of the other in their ceaseless operation will 
in the centuries that are to come redeem as many lives 
from poverty and ignorance as the other destroyed. 

*' For his bounty 
There was no winter in't, an autumn 'twas 
That grew the more by reaping." 

Fitting were their ends. The one died at St. Helena, 
the broken-hearted " somnambulist of a shattered dream" 
of universal empire. The other will take high rank 
among the great benefactors and spiritual heroes of our 
race. 

It would be interesting to contrast them as they 
drafted the last expression of their wishes in anticipa- 
tion of death. Each testamentary document is charac- 
teristic of its wTiter. That of Napoleon is his final act 
of charlatanry, — the last play of a desperate gamester. 
What hypocrisy, pride, cunning, malevolence, and sense 
of guilt breathe through this will ! As the spirits of the 



54 ORATION BY HON. JAMES M. BECK. 

slain rose in the witches' cave before that kingly mur- 
derer, whom Shakespeare drew, there came to this mod- 
ern Macbeth, whose vaulting ambition had o'erleaped 
itself, disquieting thoughts of that Due d'Enghien, whom, 
like Banquo, he had foully assassinated to secure his 
seat on an imperial throne. As if this stain of blood 
were not enough, he shows the narrow malevolence of 
his nature in that legacy to the man who had tried to 
assassinate the Duke of Wellington. 

Contrast with his impotent malice the noble serenity 
of soul with which Girard dictated to his trusted coun- 
sellor the last expression of his wishes. As he disposed 
of the vast accumulations of his busy Hfe, which had 
been earned by incessant and honorable toil and with- 
out causing the shedding of a single tear, he could have 
recalled with justifiable pride the day he left the quay at 
Bordeaux a penniless lad, with life before him as a battle- 
field. He had fought a good fight and won a signal 
victory. Like the dying Pericles, he could proudly 
claim that no one, through any act of his, had put on 
mourning. Grateful as were the recollections of his 
past, with its many triumphs over adverse circum- 
stances, yet his soul must have had its great reward for 
its life-long travail in the reflection that he would not 
wholly die, nor would his work cease with his latest 
breath, but that for all the centuries that were to come 
his soul would live in the ceaseless good of his bene- 
factions. With his rare prescience he may have seen, 
as Moses saw Canaan from Pisgah's height, the Girard 
College of to-day in all its magnificent reality. May we 
not believe that, as his trembUng hand attached his sig- 
nature to this noble document, a divine content possessed 
his soul with the benediction : 

" Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
these. My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." 



PRESENTATION OF THE SCULPTOR J. MASSEY 
RHIND, BY THE CHAIRMAN. 



PRESENTATION 

OF THE 

SCULPTOR, J. MASSEY RHIND, 

BY THE CHAIRMAN. 



At the conclusion of Mr. Beck's oration, the flags of 
the United States and France enveloping the statue 
were withdrawn amidst the plaudits of the great assem- 
blage, and the Chairman of the meeting said : 

" No doubt you all desire to see the man whose mind 
conceived, and whose ready hands executed, this beau- 
tiful specimen of the sculptor's art, and I have the very 
great pleasure to present to you Mr. J. Massey Rhind." 

Mr. Rhind advanced to the front of the platform and 
bowed his acknowledgment of the approval with which 
he was met. 



57 



ADDRESS BY HON. CHARLES F. WARWICK. 



ADDRESS 



BY 



HON. CHARLES F. WARWICK, 



MAYOR OF PHILADELPHIA. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Board of 
City Trusts, Members of the Alumni, and Students 
OF GiRARD College, — It is a pleasant, and at the same 
time a most unusual, privilege that has fallen to my lot, 
within a week past, to accept on behalf of the city two 
monuments dedicated to the memory of two distinguished 
men. 

In every respect Washington and Girard were totally 
dissimilar. In no one point did their characters touch, 
and yet they are both worthy our deepest gratitude, be- 
cause of the inestimable services rendered by them to us 
and ours. 

It is essentially proper that we should honor men for 
their charit}^ and benevolence, as well as for their heroism 
and patriotism. Monuments are the tribute of respect 
we pay to our heroes and benefactors. They teach a 
lesson for present and for future generations, and stand 
as an example, that the influence of the good deeds of 
men may live long after they have passed away. They 
incite the living to emulate the heroism and the charity 
of the dead. They represent the sentiments of gratitude 
that our tongues can but feebly express, but which our 
hearts often so deeply feel. 

6i 



62 ADDRESS 

Never, perhaps, in the history of this country has a 
monument been unveiled and dedicated in the presence 
of people who hold in such deep veneration as you do 
the memory of the man vv^hom the memorial honors, for 
you are the recipients of his bounty, the children of his 
solicitous care, the direct heirs of his charity. 

Stephen Girard was a Frenchman by birth, but early 
in life became a naturalized citizen of the United States. 
I often wonder if we sufficiently appreciate the debt of 
gratitude we owe to France. In the dark hours of the 
Revolution she extended her hand to the struggling 
colonies and materially aided in securing their inde- 
pendence. 

The names of La Fayette, D'Estaing, and Rochambeau 
are inseparably interwoven into the history of our coun- 
try. France has put us under further obligations, for 
she gave to Philadelphia one of our most successful 
merchants and one of the most distinguished philanthro- 
pists of this or any other country. 

Stephen Girard was born near Bordeaux in 1750. He 
early took to the sea, and in time rose to be master of 
and co-owner in an American coaster. In 1777 he 
arrived in this city, at the time the British were in pos- 
session and while Lord Howe's vessels were riding at 
anchor in the Delaware. Shortly afterwards he married, 
and decided to settle permanently in Philadelphia and to 
devote himself to mercantile pursuits. He occupied a 
building on Water Street, which he used both as a store 
and dwelling. He lived economically but comfortably, 
without show or function. He was a familiar character 
upon the public streets, and his plain one-horse chaise 
gave no idea of the immense wealth of its occupant. He 
was always simple and modest in his tastes and never 
given to display. This is sometimes taken for meanness, 
but really may be the absence of vulgarity. It is better 



BY HON. CHARLES F. WARWICK. 63 

to ride in a one-horse gig with your debts all paid than 
to drive a four-in-hand with waiting creditors. 

Prudence, economy, industry, and strict attention to 
business were the cardinal rules of his life. His advance- 
ment was most rapid. He met with almost unparalleled 
success in every enterprise he undertook. He had the 
touch of Midas, for everything that came to his hand 
seemed to turn to gold. 

Philadelphia, owing greatly to his influence, became the 
commercial centre of the United States. His name and 
paper were known and honored in every bank of exchange 
throughout the civilized world ; his vessels traded with 
every port and whitened every sea. His business trans- 
actions were on the largest scale; they reached from Phila- 
delphia to London, from London to Cathay. He was 
wise, shrewd, and exceptionally enterprising, and must be 
classed with the greatest merchants of the world. So suc- 
cessful a man was, of course, subjected to adverse criticism. 
Envy and jealousy are great detractors of character. 

We should gauge a man by the results of his life, by 
the great and humane deeds that mark his career, not 
by the slanders and innuendoes of his enemies. It is 
said by some that he was possessed with the love of 
gain, that he delighted alone in accumulation. Perhaps 
this may be so ; but who knows but at that very time, 
having conceived of this great institution, he was amass- 
ing wealth that he might provide a home and education 
for those who otherwise would be without opportunity. 
" Though he were unsatisfied in getting, yet in bestowing 
he was most princely." 

So busy a man as Girard, whose interests were so 
great and whose commercial enterprises covered the 
universe, had but little time to give to social duties and 
pleasures, and consequently he had but few intimate and 
confidential friends. 



64 ADDRESS 

" His mind was tossing on the ocean, there where his 
argosies with portly sail" were battling with the winds. 
Because wealthy men do not indulge in those pleasures, 
which if we had the means we think we would enjoy, we 
are apt to judge them by a standard which we have no 
right to apply. A spendthrift is " a good fellow" while 
his money lasts, a fool when it is gone. 

Girard was an earnest, sincere man with a settled pur- 
pose in life, and the results of his labor will fall like 
blessings on the ages yet to come. He had faults, as all 
men have, and we are not here to extenuate them, but 
surely, in view of what he did, we may extol his virtues. 
He was kindly to the poor; he was generous to posterity. 
It was the Divine Master who once said, ^'And the 
greatest of these is charity." 

If we study any man's life in its details we will dis- 
cover, no doubt, many blemishes ; the sun has its spots, 
but they do not darken the light. If we take the results 
flowing from the efforts of a man's life, we then may 
apply a proper judgment in our estimate of his real 
worth. With this measure, then, it can truthfully be 
said that Stephen Girard's life was crowned with the 
greatest success, for one of the noblest and one of the 
most charitable institutions in the world stands to-day as 
his monument. There his ashes lie in the care of those 
who love him and in the midst of his benefactions. What a 
magnificent mausoleum ! The kings and mighty of the 
earth, whose ambition centred in their own glory, rest 
under majestic piles of sculptured architecture, their 
epitaphs written in pompous language recounting the 
glory of their cruel and warlike deeds. How these 
dwindle in comparison with the College founded by the 
merchant Girard, and dedicated to charity, to love, and 
to the care of the unfortunate ! 

There was one incident in the life of Girard that 



BY HON. CHARLES F. WARWICK. 65 

Specially marks him as a man of great moral courage. 
In 1793, during the yellow fever scourge, he displayed, 
in the face of death, the greatest heroism. The epidemic 
spread with fearful rapidity in every direction throughout 
the city, — the bravest hearts quailed in the presence of 
the danger. Out of a population of twenty-five thousand 
that remained in the city, over four thousand were swept 
away in three months. Every other house seemed to be 
in mourning. The city sat in sackcloth and ashes ; the 
death-carts rumbled incessantly by night and by day 
through the deserted streets, and the dead were hurried 
to the graveyards and quickly interred without the sacred 
rites of burial. Those who were able to leave fled from 
their homes, and there were not nurses enough left to 
care for the sick and dying. Mr. Girard at this time was 
in the very prime of his life, and on the flood-tide of his 
successful career as a merchant. Bravely and resolutely 
he faced the crisis, risking all in his devotion to duty. 
For two months this man of wealth and influence served 
as a nurse in the public hospital. He applied his organ- 
izing ability to the condition of affairs, and it was due 
more to him than to any other citizen that the consuming 
pestilence was at length stayed. Nothing can speak 
more forcibly of his courage and philanthropy than his 
self-sacrificing conduct during this period of danger. 
After all, what greater encomium can be paid to a man 
than to say that he is courageous and charitable. 

His career as a banker is too well known for me at this 
time to dwell upon, save to say that during the war of 
1 8 12 he was ever ready to assist the government finan- 
cially in times of stringency and embarrassment. He was 
a loyal citizen of his adopted country. His religious 
views are not known. They were not confined within the 
lines of any sect, and his faith did not repose within the 
limits of any dogma. He was in no sense of the word a 

5 



66 ADDRESS 

bigot. His tolerance and liberality were as broad as the 
universe. Man to him, irrespective of creed, was his 
brother. This sketch, of course, is but a mere outline 
of him whom we honor, but in a measure it may give 
you an idea of the strong points of his life and character, 
and that is all it is intended for. I have not the time to 
draw a complete picture or to round out the sketch with 
details. That task has been left to the orator of the day, 
and most excellently and eloquently has he met the 
demand. 

It is a source of congratulation and greatly to the 
credit of the city that the Girard Trust has been so care- 
fully, so wisely, and so economically administered in all 
its purposes. May it ever be confided to the care of 
those men who, rising above every selfish consideration, 
will with devotion carry out its benevolent provisions 
with an eye single to the great interests involved. 

The fame of Girard College has added greatly to the 
reputation of our city, and the name of the founder 
should be held in the highest esteem by every one who 
takes pride in the prosperity of Philadelphia. The thou- 
sands who have gathered here to-day to pay reverence 
to the memory of Girard, and especially those who have 
been personally blessed by his charity, testify to the 
usefulness and beneficence of this great institution. 

Before closing, allow me to add a few words in relation 
to the statue itself The artist has done well in presenting 
Girard to us just as he appeared in life. He has not so 
idealized the man in bronze as to have removed all traces 
of his real character. Girard stands before us as we 
imagine him to have looked in his bank or counting- 
house. While twirling his spectacles, we can almost hear 
him negotiating with a brother merchant for the sale or 
purchase of a cargo of merchandise. The face is thought- 
ful, the pose is natural and graceful ; there is no striving 



BY HON. CHARLES F. WARWICK. 67 

after effect, and the art concealing itself in its simplicity 
has given us a living, thinking man. 

To the memory, then, of this most generous philanthro- 
pist, we dedicate this monument, and I accept it in the 
name of the people whom I have the honor to represent, 
with the promise that it shall ever be guarded with care 
and held as a sacred trust. 



ADDRESS BY HON. DAiNIEL H. HASTINGS. 



ADDRESS 

BY 

HON. DANIEL H. HASTINGS, 

GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, — This memorial to the 
memory of Stephen Girard is unveiled to-day with 
appropriate ceremony after fifty years' practical experi- 
ence of one of the greatest benefactions ever conceived 
or inaugurated by a private citizen in any country or in 
any time. 

It is erected jointly by the Alumni of the College he 
founded and the people of this City and of the Com- 
monwealth of Pennsylvania. It is intended to be an 
enduring monument to a citizen of the State who called 
himself a " mariner and merchant," but whom the people 
with one voice proclaim to be Philadelphia's greatest 
philanthropist. 

The Alumni of the College have gathered here from 
many States and from almost every calling in life to 
renew the associations of former years, and to pay their 
full measure of love and gratitude to the memory of the 
great founder. The people of Philadelphia are here to 
welcome them and to unite in this grateful tribute, while 
the people of the State, many of whom are contributors 
to the statue, fully recognize his service to the Common- 
wealth and the country as well as to the city and her 
deserving youth. 

In 1829, when Governor Shultz, leaving an empty 

71 



72 ADDRESS 

treasury and no money to carry on the daily affairs of 
the State government, with the Legislature adjourned, 
and the contingency of bankruptcy making it impossible 
for the State to obtain credit for the actual daily outlay 
of its departments, — when Governor Shultz rode into 
Philadelphia, with nothing but his word of honor and 
his confidence in the ultimate patriotism and integrity of 
the people on which to raise the money, he was met by 
Stephen Girard, who accepted the collateral and loaned 
the State one hundred thousand dollars. This relief of 
the State appropriately formed the last public act of his 
life. 

He aided in the early development of the material 
resources of the State ; he loaned the Schuylkill Navi- 
gation Company hundreds of thousands of dollars ; he 
bequeathed to the Commonwealth three hundred thou- 
sand dollars for the prosecution of internal improve- 
ments ; he engaged in agriculture and became a practical 
farmer ; he lived and labored to make Philadelphia the 
chief city of the Union, and he realized his ideal ; he 
made Philadelphia the most important sea-port on the 
Atlantic coast, and, realizing that the construction of 
larger vessels would require a deeper channel in our 
great water-way, he bequeathed five hundred thousand 
dollars to the city of Philadelphia for the improvement 
of her water-front ; he firmly maintained that Philadel- 
phia, with a deeper channel, would continue to hold her 
ascendency as the chief seaport. He invested his money 
with absolute confidence in the future wealth and glory 
of the State ; he became a national figure ; he was the 
right hand of national credit in the war of 1 8 1 2 ; he 
responded frequently to the call of the Federal govern- 
ment for temporary loans, and he stayed impending panic 
by timely and liberal management of the Girard Bank at 
the crucial period. 



BY HON. DANIEL H. HASTINGS. 73 

Girard's example has made a deep and wide impression. 
Critical investigation may have found food for the carp- 
ing tongue of criticism. We have no time for that. The 
faultless man has not been discovered in this country. 
The great qualities and achievements of Girard have ob- 
scured his critic and his critic's microscope. His life was 
simple, severe, painstaking, methodical, exacting, and 
honest. He surrounded himself with no artificial halo. 
He was severest in the exactions placed upon himself. 
His ambition was to be a perfect example of a patriotic, 
law-abiding citizen. His every recorded act, public and 
private, bears the stamp of that probity and integrity 
which are unassailable. He was the most industrious and 
hardest working man of his day. Franklin wrote homely 
truths and wholesome idioms about frugality and industry, 
Stephen Girard acted them out in his daily life, and he 
died possessed of the greatest private fortune then known 
in America. 

There were other sides to his character. He had an 
especial fondness for children, horses, dogs, and song- 
birds. The man who can captivate and make friends 
with these has sunshine in his soul. 

He exhibited in 1793 the qualities of which heroes are 
made when he dared the ravages of yellow fever in his 
ministrations to his stricken neighbors. 

Girard's greatest conception, greatest achievement, is 
the marble monument whose many-sided walls daily echo 
to the music made by boyish voices. That monument 
places Stephen Girard beyond the reach of oblivion. His 
name will survive as long as that of Philadelphia. His- 
tory will tell of him as a man of vigorous industry and 
rigid economy who, with generous spirit and wise fore- 
thought, bequeathed the accumulated earnings of a hfe- 
time for the advancement of his fellow-men. He has 
earned the right to have his name in the fore-front of all 



74 ADDRESS. 

human distinction as a great benefactor in the cause of 
education. He has searched the homes of sorrow and 
disappointment, and he has poured into the recesses of 
their existence the radiance of moral and intellectual 
cultivation. 

There are thousands of men to-day who thank God 
for Stephen Girard. They are found in public and 
private life, among our best educated citizens, scholars, 
mechanics, merchants, and men of business. They are 
the men who, in whatever station, can never forget their 
benefactor, nor will they cease to mingle with their 
prayers or to commemorate with their labor the name of 
Stephen Girard. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOUNDER'S 

DAY TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

OF CITY TRUSTS. 



REPORT 

OF THE 

COMMITTEE ON FOUNDER'S DAY, 

MAY 20, 1897, 

TO THE 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF CITY TRUSTS. 



To THE President and Directors of City Trusts : 

Gentlemen, — Your committee, to whom was referred 
the matter of a fitting celebration of the one hundred 
and fort>^-seventh anniversary of the birth of Stephen 
Girard at the college bearing his name, and, together 
with the Girard College Alumni and other graduates of 
the institution, show a just recognition of his beneficence 
and generosity upon the occasion of the unveiling of the 
statue then about to be erected to his memory, respect- 
fully report : 

First. That on the evening of the twenty-seventh day 
of April they met, by invitation, the various committees 
of the Alumni Association at their hall, where all the 
preUminaries for the unveiling of the statue and celebra- 
tion of the day were finally considered and agreed upon. 
The concluding feature of a reunion of officers and grad- 
uates at Girard College in the evening (as suggested by 
your committee) was most heartily approved. 

Sccoyid. At the hour fixed on the twentieth day of May 
last the battalion of College Cadets left the institution in 
full uniform, in command of Captain Frank A. Edwards, 
First Cavalry, United States Army, and reported at head- 

77 



78 REPORT OF CHAIRMAN OF 

quarters of the Alumni to the chief marshal of the parade. 
The other pupils of the College, in charge of the prefects, 
also left in ample time to witness the unveiling, and occu- 
pied seats upon a stand or platform in the most available 
position that had been carefully erected and prepared 
for them. Such officers of the College as chose to avail 
themselves of the opportunity were also provided for. 

Third. The exercises at the unveiling were of a most 
impressive character, but, as it is understood that an offi- 
cial report of the proceedings will be presented to the 
Directors of City Trusts and the public in printed form 
by the Alumni Association, your committee will not 
further dwell upon them here. After the ceremonies of 
the unveiling were concluded, the battalion, the pupils, 
and officers returned to the College, and the Alumni 
Association and other graduates to their Alma Mater, 
where ample preparations had been made for refresh- 
ments and an evening's entertainment. The buildings 
were handsomely decorated with bunting and flags of 
all nations, the predominant feature being American and 
French. A platform had been erected for the band from 
which to discourse music in the evening; the statue of 
Mr. Girard in the vestibule of the Main Building, and 
the statue of a cadet erected on the grounds in memory 
of graduates of the College who fell in the war of the 
Rebellion, were handsomely decorated with evergreens 
and flowers; the dining-rooms were prepared by the 
caterer for a standing and seating capacity of two thou- 
sand or more persons, and the tables were filled with a 
bountiful supply of food and delicacies. At 6.30 p.m. 
two thousand people formed in procession at the Main 
College Building, and, headed by the College band and 
the president and the vice-president of the institution, 
marched in good order to the dining-room in Build- 
ing No. 8, where, all being in readiness, with numerous 



COMMITTEE ON FOUNDER S DAY. /Q 

waiters in attendance, each individual was served and all 
appetites were satisfied in the most quiet and satisfactory 
manner. Pending the foregoing, a similar but more 
interesting feature was in progress in the officers' dining- 
room, where the ladies connected with the College and 
the ladies of the Ladies' Auxiliary Committee of the 
Alumni who had been invited by your committee were 
gathered together, and were enjoying with each other the 
good things provided for the occasion. 

The crowning feature, however, of the celebration of 
Founder's Day was yet to come. Arrangements, with 
ample protection, had been made for admission during 
the evening of ladies of the families of the graduates and 
such others as could be properly vouched for; the 
grounds were brilliantly illuminated with electric lights 
and Chinese lanterns, as also was the music platform ; 
the College band performed a selection of music during 
the evening, programmes for which had been furnished 
to the guests. The whole scene was one of great beauty. 
The ladies, with their bright and dazzling colors in both 
dress and headgear, promenading with their escorts or 
listening to the music ; the Chapel, with its dainty walls 
glistening in the moonlight of the arc lamps and sur- 
mounted with its illuminated spire and clock, the latter 
with its chimes proclaiming the fractions of each passing 
hour ; the Main Building, with its Corinthian columns, 
standing beautifully in the background ; the lofty towers, 
with their electric coronets spreading like moonlight 
from above, — all combined to make one of the most 
beautiful panoramas ever seen and one of the most enjoy- 
able occasions ever participated in within the buildings 
or upon the College grounds. At the hour of 9.45 p.m. 
the Chapel bell tolled the hour for closing the gates and 
retiring. The pleasure and enjoyment of the day made 
parting sad, and the great throng moved slowly out the 



So REPORT OF CHAIRMAN. 

heavy open gate, and as the old clock indicated the hour 
of ten the grounds were cleared, the gates were closed, 
and quiet reigned supreme. All had departed and will 
ever hold in grateful memory the feeling of a day well 
spent, a duty well performed. The statue in memory of 
a great man with noble instincts had been placed in 
public view upon one of the most important highways 
and thoroughfares of his adopted city, 

Stephen Girard, 
" Mariner and Merchant," 

and all through the efforts, application, and energy of 
his wards, the graduates of Girard College. 

JOHN H. MICHENER, Chairman, 

EDWIN S. STUART, 

LOUIS WAGNER, 

Co7nmittee, 
Philadelphia, June 9, 1897. 



COMMEMORATIVE POEM BY H. HANBY HAY. 



COMMEMORATIVE POEM TO STEPHEN 
GIRARD. 

Written for the unveiling of his Statue, Philadelphia, 
May 20, 1897. 

BY H. HANBY HAY. 



The prickly aloe fills its God-meant place, 

A silent dignity devoid of grace, 

But when ten thousand suns and dews have passed, 

It has its hour, the blossom comes at last. 

So time conceals a great man in its heart, 

And keeps him till the noxious fogs depart, 

The mists of ignorance and narrow hate — 

Then truth herself unlocks the friendly gate, 

And leads him forth, that all the world may scan 

The justified and comprehended man. 

To-day o'er earth the sun of knowledge glows. 
The monarch passes, royal splendors close ; 
A nobler theme inspires the sage's pen, 
Not king, not soldier, but the citizen, 
The mariner who trades 'neath every sky, 
With him the issues of the future lie ; 
The feudal dies, and freedom wakes to be ; 
Like air itself it spreads from sea to sea. 
Unchaining nations bids oppression cease. 
For kingly pride, it writes down civic peace. 
When shall this typic citizen appear ? 
The hour has struck, behold ! the man is here. 

83 



84 COMMEMORATIVE POEM 

To-day the sculptor sets before our sight 
This man full grown to recognition's height, 
Whose praise invites the orator and bard. 
To-day his city honors her Girard, 
To-day we raise him to the light of heaven, 
But not alone to him is honor given ; 
Honor breeds honor, — this is honor's way ; 
Our country, too, is marching on to-day. 
And marching on to greater heights is raised, 
Whene'er the merchant-mariner is praised. 
What can we givQ him ? Far beyond our ken, 
He stands with those who love their fellow-men ; 
Has he not made the orphan's heart to sing, 
And raised misfortune on the scholar's wing ? 
He needs no gift of ours, we cannot hide, 
Nor magnify, what God has magnified. 



How large the man ! if deeds might measure size ; 
His times too knew him, but with purblind eyes ; 
They hardly marked the little portly form, 
This captain who had weathered many a storm, 
The short swift steps, the queer, old-fashioned style, 
Straight on he went ungreeted by a smile, 
Men gave him some respect, but small regard. 
And whispered as he went, ^' 'Tis old Girard, 
The foreign banker. What a brain to plan ! 
In our broad country he's the richest man." 
Yet children smiled on him, and loved him well. 
They saw the fruit beneath the prickly shell. 
To their fair souls his hidden love was clear, 
That love grows brighter with each passing year. 

And were his times so pure they laid no weight, 
On those rare gifts which all the world calls great ? 



BY H. HANBY HAY. 85 

Justice, integrity, and self-control, 

And private actions fragrant with the soul, 

All these were his, these gifts which God calls best. 

Tried at all points, he ever stood the test. 

When his adopted country worn by strife, 

Exhausted lay, he lent her vigorous life. 

He gave her of his gold in lavish store. 

Couldst thou, within our country born, do more ? 

When fever smote his dear adopted land, 

And death and robbery stalked hand in hand. 

When doctors fled, and magistrate and guard. 

Like a strong angel, then arose Girard, 

He snatched the hospital from hag and knave, 

Redeemed his city, wrestled with the grave. 

In quiet home or in the busy mart. 

One great resolve was burning in his heart : 

This mighty thought all other thoughts above, 

Was wrought in anguish and exceeding love. 

When wife went mad, and infant child lay dead, 

When woe on woe was heaped upon his head, 

The stony anguish of that silent man, 

I cannot picture it, no phrases can. 

The vacant bed seemed like a yawning tomb 

In that dark moment, from that pit of gloom 

He made the fatherless his happy heirs. 

Assuaged his grief by mitigating theirs. 

Snatching a mighty victory from fate, 

His arms embraced the orphan of a state. 

The deed was grand, and it was grandly done ; 

He gave each orphan, by adoption son. 

Food for the body, beauty for the soul. 

No narrow cells, no grudging scanty dole, 

But opportunity and fragrant air ; 

He walled them round with wise and loving care. 



S6 COMMEMORATIVE POEM 

His College rose a wonder of delight. 

Oh ! what a vision to the stranger's sight, 

Standing on Fairmount in the summer heat 

The rivered park is rustling at his feet ; 

Before him lies the town of honest homes, 

How pleasant are its wooded squares and domes! 

And now his eye perceives a new delight : 

He marks a classic front of peerless white, 

Around it trees and lesser buildings sleep. 

So some tall shepherd guards his slumbering sheep. 

How beautiful ! it seems a voiceless prayer, 

This Grecian temple standing chastely fair, 

This paragon of loveliness and joy. 

This dumb instructor of each orphan boy. 

Beauty in stone before them day by day, 

No fit remembrance of Girard you say. 

Of the plain merchant ? Cast that thought behind ; 

It is the fit exponent of his mind. 

The end has crowned the work, and wherefore made ? 

Let the boys answer nurtured in its shade. 

Speak, Quaker city ! thou hast felt the flame 

Of their pure blood through all thy working frame. 

A mighty army, true Americans, 

Have justified the founder and his plans. 

Men of this city, freemen of this State, 

His actions are for us to imitate ; 

The noble merchant, proud to buy and sell. 

Who loved his city infinitely well. 

The banker ever ready with his aid. 

Who spent his fortune where his wealth was made, 

Who, lest his city suffer an eclipse. 

Covered old ocean with his laden ships. 



BY H. HANBY HAY. 87 

His wealth still smooths our passage to the sea ; 
This brave old Captain mocks our apathy, 
He loved our city with a love all true, 
As he once loved it, let us love it, too. 

Aye, love our city, great in heart and brain ; 
Distress has never plead to her in vain ; 
She guards her own as eagles guard their brood. 
To-day this statue speaks her gratitude. 
And godlike gratitude has sovereign power 
To live beyond the happenings of an hour. 
The blossoms die, the seed shall not depart, 
But live, to spring in every loving heart. 
So shall it be when freedom fills the earth. 
We shall be praised who feebly saw his worth, 
Who faintly recognized the power which should 
Leaven a Commonwealth for living good, 
Then shall our statue fire some greater bard 
To sing the epic-citizen — Girard. 



STEPHEN GIRARD: HIS TIME, HIS COLLEGE, 
HIS TRUSTS, BY GEORGE P. RUPP. 



STEPHEN GIRARD: 

HIS TIME, HIS COLLEGE, HIS TRUSTS. 
BY GEORGE P. RUPP. 



It appears to me, therefore, more reasonable to pursue glory by means 
of the intellect than of bodily strength, and, since the life we enjoy is 
short, to make the remembrance of us as lasting as possible. . . . 

Even in agriculture, in navigation, and in architecture, whatever man 
performs owns the dominion of intellect. 

Sallust. 
I show it most of all when I show justice, 
For then I pity those I do not know. 

Shakespeare. 
No true and permanent fame can be founded except in labors which 
promote the happiness of mankind. 

Charles Sumner. 

In the history of a nation only those should be re- 
membered who have given some thought helpful to the 
world, or done some deed whereby all posterity is bene- 
fited. This year we celebrate the one hundred and 
forty-seventh anniversary of the birth of a man who was 
the most eminent philanthropist of his day and genera- 
tion, — a man who was childless, that he might be the 
father of the orphan ; one who did much for his adopted 
city and country, and to whom we can add to his titles 
of " mariner and merchant," those prouder titles of 
"philanthropist and patriot." His career is worthy of 
the most appreciative insight. 

Stephen Girard was born on the 20th of May, 1 750, 
in the Rue Ramouet aux Chartrons, near the city of 
Bordeaux, France. He was the eldest son and the 

91 



92 STEPHEN GIRARD. 

second child of Captain Pierre Girard. The men of the 
Girard family followed the sea for a living, and, without 
doubt, Stephen Girard inherited from them a marked 
inclination for it. When eight years old he met with an 
accident, through which the sight of his right eye was 
destroyed. This personal defect and the ridicule it occa- 
sioned had its effect upon his character. The loss of his 
mother while he was still young, and the bringing home 
of a stepmother, who possibly did not understand his 
nature, and the change in the household which this occa- 
sioned, made him rebel against the new regime. 

Some forty years afterward he referred to this period 
of his life in the following terms : '' I was very young 
when my father married again, and since then, I can say 
with truth, I have made my way alone, with means gained 
from my nurse, the sea." Again in 1813 he writes : " I 
have the proud satisfaction to know that my conduct, my 
labor, and my economy have enabled me to do one hun- 
dred times more for my relatives than they, altogether, 
have ever done for me since the day of my birth. While 
my brothers were taught at college, I was the only one 
whose education was neglected. But the love of labor, 
which has not left me yet, has placed me in the ranks of 
citizens useful to society." 

When not quite fourteen years old, he, with his father's 
consent, sailed as a cabin-boy and part owner in a vessel 
called the " Pelerin" for San Domingo. For nine years 
he traded between Bordeaux and the West Indies, and 
attained the rank of lieutenant of the vessel, as the posi- 
tion was called in the French mercantile marine,— a 
position that ranked with our first officer. Girard had 
now undoubtedly become a skilful navigator, and the 
use he had made of his time by study and observation 
made up for some of the defects of his early education. 
He applied for authority to act as captain of a vessel. 



BY GEORGE P. RUPP. 93 

At that time it was the law of France that, in addition 
to the appHcant being twenty-five years old. he should 
have made at least two cruises on a government vessel. 
Girard was but twenty-three, and had sailed in none 
but merchant vessels. But his family had influence 
enough to procure a dispensation, and in October, 1773, 
after passing the necessary examination, he was granted 
a license, which reads as follows : ** To Stephen Girard of 
Bordeaux full authority to act as Captain, Master, or 
Patron of a merchant vessel." In the ship " La Julie" 
he left Bordeaux for St. Marc's, in the island of San 
Domingo, reaching there in February, 1774. Having 
disposed of the cargo, he sailed for New York, and 
landed there, for the first time in the United States, in 

1774. 

The ability he displayed in the business of disposing 
of the cargo, he brought in the ship, attracted the notice 
of Mr. Thomas Randall, a merchant of that city, and his 
assistance enabled Girard to trade successfully between 
New York, New Orleans, and Port au Prince. While 
acting jointly with Mr. Randall, as part owner of the 
vessel called *' L'Aimable Louise," Girard was returning 
from the West Indies, when he was forced, by the pres- 
ence of the British fleet, to enter the Delaware Bay, and 
he arrived for the first time in Philadelphia in the month 
of May, 1776. On account of the war with England, 
the port of Philadelphia was blockaded by the British, 
and, knowing the danger to American ships, he sold his 
interest in the " L'Aimable Louise," and opened a small 
store on Water Street. He was a mariner no more, but 
he laid his plans to continue in the shipping business. 

In the northern section of the city there was a ship- 
builder, named Lum, whom he consulted about building 
a new vessel for him. It was there he met Mary, or 
Polly Lum as she was familiarly called, a young girl 



94 STEPHEN GIRARD. 

about sixteen years old, distinguished for her personal 
beauty and noble virtues. After a brief courtship they 
were married by the Rev. Mr. Stringer, in St. Paul's 
Protestant Episcopal Church, on the 6th of June, 1777. 
On the approach of the British army to take posses- 
sion of Philadelphia, Girard, with his wife, left for Mount 
Holly, having purchased a small farm there from Mr. 
Hazlehurst, who had at one time been his partner. 

In October, 1778, two years after his arrival in Phila- 
delphia, he took the oath of allegiance to the State of 
Pennsylvania. On his return to Philadelphia from Mount 
Holly, he resumed his attention to his business, espe- 
cially to the West India trade. His previous experience, 
combined with his unflagging labor and economy, 
greatly aided him in making his progress to fortune sure 
and rapid. His father-in-law, Mr. Lum, built for him a 
sloop, which he named the " Water- Witch," and, as it 
was the planning of this boat which occasioned his 
meeting with his wife, he naturally regarded it with affec- 
tion, and had a superstition that it could never cause 
him loss. Girard pursued so successfully the New 
Orleans and San Domingo trade, and his gains increased 
to such an extent, that he was enabled to extend his en- 
terprises to a much broader scale. In 1780, he entered 
into partnership with his brother Jean, but bickerings 
soon sprang up between the two, and these contentions 
became so bitter that it was deemed prudent to dissolve 
the partnership. This was done in 1790, and the amount 
that fell to Stephen Girard's share was some thirty thou- 
sand dollars. Another source of good fortune to him, 
and indeed he confessed that this furnished the founda- 
tion of his fortune, was the lease he took on a number 
of stores on Water Street, one of which he occupied 
himself. The rents being low, it is manifest that the 
gain must have been very large. 



BY GEORGE P. RUPP. 95 

Girard's domestic affairs now became of such a char- 
acter, that they attracted the attention of his most inti- 
mate friends. For some cause his wife fell into a state 
of melancholy, which gradually became so pronounced 
that her mind was seriously affected, and, after a consul- 
tation of prominent physicians, Girard reluctantly con- 
sented to her being admitted into the Pennsylvania Hos- 
pital. A short time after her admission she gave birth 
to a female child, which was baptized Mary Girard, but, 
in spite of the care lavished upon the infant, it died a 
few months after its birth. 

In the year 1791 Girard commenced building those 
fine ships which were the pride of the city of Philadel- 
phia, and which were soon to be engaged in trade with 
the most important seaports of the world, especially with 
Calcutta and Canton. The names of these ships show 
that he still had an affectionate regard for his native land, 
they being called the " Rousseau," "Voltaire," "Montes- 
quieu," " Helvetius," etc. At this period the desire of 
fame, the seeking of money, not however from avarice, 
but for the power and good it could do, must have taken 
possession of his mind, helping him to forget the sorrow 
caused by the loss of his wife, in a manner worse than 
death, and the consequent breaking up of his home life. 
Who can fathom the secret musings of the mind of that 
lonely man, who was even then laying up treasures for 
the building of that College upon whose walls his own 
name should be written in living letters. 

In 1790, Alexander Hamilton, in his masterly report 
on the finances, urged upon Congress the importance of 
establishing a Bank of the United States. His sug- 
gestion was speedily acted upon, and an act for that 
purpose was introduced, and passed the Senate January 
20, 1 79 1. In the House of Representatives it met with 
vigorous opposition, but it finally passed that body Feb- 



96 STEPHEN GIRARD. 

ruary 8, 1791. Washington, who was President, asked 
for the written opinion of his cabinet as to its constitu- 
tionality. They were equally divided. The President, 
however, believed it to be legal, and signed the bill. The 
bank received a charter, which limited its existence to 
twenty years. Like the Bank of England, it was a bank 
of deposit, discount, and circulation. It soon went into 
operation, with a capital of ten millions of dollars, and 
became very popular and successful. It was a powerful 
agency in establishing the credit of the government, 
facilitating its financial operations, and promoting the 
interests of industry and commerce. 

The bank was established in Philadelphia, with 
branches at different points, and began business in Car- 
penters' Hall. It remained there until 1797, when it was 
removed to the new building on Third Street below 
Chestnut. This building was commenced in 1795, and 
is said to be the first public building erected in Philadel- 
phia with a porch and pillars. Girard was a firm friend 
of the bank, and he believed that a corporation, that had 
been organized under the advice of the great financier 
of his time, which had proved of so much service to the 
financial world, and had conferred so many advantages 
upon the community, should be perpetuated. He soon 
saw, however, that the opposition against the bank was 
so great, that it would prevent the charter from being 
renewed. It is a sad commentary on the financial and 
economic notions of the day, that such an institution 
should have been closed, after so long and prosperous a 
career. 

In 18 10, Girard had about a million dollars with the 
house of Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co., London. Owing to 
the critical condition of the Bank of England, and the 
Messrs. Baring being on the verge of bankruptcy, Girard's 
money rested upon an uncertain foundation. He sue- 



BY GEORGE P. RUPP. 97 

ceeded after a time in obtaining his funds, partly by pur- 
chase of British goods and partly by buying shares in 
the Bank of the United States. The bill to recharter the 
bank was defeated by the vote of Vice-President Clinton, 
and the bank closed its affairs, paying to the stockholders 
a premium over the par value of the stock of eight and 
one-half per cent. The non-renewal of this charter led 
to the establishment, by Stephen Girard, of a bank of his 
own. He found that he could purchase the bank build- 
ing and the cashier's house for one-third of the original 
cost, which he did, and on the I2th of May, 1812, com- 
menced the operation of the Bank of Stephen Girard. 
It was a novel spectacle in this country, the establish- 
ment of a private bank, conducted on a large scale, and 
conferring advantages upon the community nearly as 
great as those derived from State or national protection. 
Beside these benefits, of which the people were the re- 
cipients, it rendered important service to the govern- 
ment. 

The dissolution of the Bank of the United States 
caused a large amount of confusion in the financial 
world, and the suspension of specie payments added to 
the general embarrassment. In spite of the low state of 
the public credit, and the difificulties in which the gov- 
ernment was involved from its exhausted finances, and 
the expenses of the war, Girard was able to make heavy 
loans to the government, which enabled it to carry on 
the war. In 18 14, when the resources of the country 
were drained to the lowest ebb, the treasury bankrupt, 
a foreign foe marching over the land, and when subscrip- 
tions for a loan of five million dollars were solicited, with 
the inducement of a large bonus and interest at seven 
per cent., and only twenty thousand dollars were sub- 
scribed, Girard came forward and subscribed for the 
entire amount. This act of patriotism was the means of 

7 



98 STEPHEN GIRARD. 

renewing public confidence in the country, and those 
who had refused to subscribe were now willing to pay 
an advance, but Girard did not take advantage of them, 
but allowed them to purchase on the same terms. 

The means for carrying on the war having been fur- 
nished, a series of brilliant victories followed, which re- 
sulted in peace being declared. Girard wrote in 18 15 to 
a friend in Bordeaux as follows : " The peace which has 
taken place between this country and England will con- 
solidate forever our independence and insure our tran- 
quillity." When the government was unable to pay the 
public debt in 18 14, and was indebted to Girard for a 
large amount, in a letter to the Hon. A. J. Dallas, then 
Secretary of War, he wrote as follows : *' I am of the 
opinion that those having any claim for interest on pub- 
lic stock, etc., should patiently wait for a more favorable 
moment, or, at least, receive in payment Treasury notes. 
Should you be under the necessity of resorting to either 
of these plans, as one of the pubhc creditors I shall not 
murmur." 

When the second Bank of the United States was char- 
tered, in 1 8 16, Girard was active in its organization and 
became a director. As the funds of the government 
were deposited in it, the bank had great facilities for dis- 
counting, and by this means aided the commercial com- 
munity, and soon controlled the monetary affairs of the 
nation. When Jackson became President, in 1829, he 
expressed his decided hostility to the bank, and immedi- 
ately began a war upon it, which soon ended in its de- 
struction. 

At the time when a neutral position gave the United 
States superior advantages in commerce, Girard adopted 
the principles of good faith in his commercial opera- 
tions, acting the part of a neutral, and he avoided in- 
curring the risks which, in those beUigerent days, at- 



BY GEORGE P. RUPP. 99 

tached to vessels suspected of carrying enemies' property 
under the American flag. He forbade his captains to 
receive passengers on his vessels, or any cargo but his 
own. He wrote in regard to passengers as follows : 
*' But if you meet with American seamen in distress, you 
are to follow my invariable rule, take them on board and 
bring them home free of expense." A rigid observance 
of these rules won for him, with the officers of the British 
navy, a reputation such as no other merchant held, and 
in consequence very few of Girard's vessels were inter- 
rupted in their voyages. 

The closing scene of his domestic life was full of sad- 
ness. His wife, who had been an inmate of the Penn- 
sylvania Hospital for twenty-five years, in all of which 
time no ray of light had entered her darkened mind, died 
on September 13, 18 15. When Girard received word 
that she was dying, no outward sign gave evidence of 
the sad thoughts that filled his mind. He only bowed 
his head, and asked to be told when it was all over. 
One of his old apprentices writes, " I shall never forget 
the last and closing scene. We all stood about the 
coffin, when Mr. Girard, filled with emotion, stepped 
forward and kissed his wife's corpse, and his tears 
moistened her cheek." After bestowing a last look 
upon her, he turned to his friend, Samuel Coates, and 
said, ** It is well." On the beautiful lawn of the hospital 
she was buried, at Girard's request, with the simple 
ceremonial of the Quakers, under whose management 
the hospital was conducted. No head-stone designated 
her grave, the custom of the Quakers forbidding it. The 
site of the grave is now covered by the Clinic building 
of the hospital. 

One of Girard's characteristics was his public spirit. 
This was manifested when he subscribed one hundred 
and ten thousand dollars for the improvement of the 



lOO STEPHEN GIRARD. 

navigation of the Schuylkill, and by again his subscrip- 
tion and the temporary loans which he made to the 
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. When the State of 
Pennsylvania, in 1829, through the extravagance of its 
legislature, in what was thought to be an injudicious sys- 
tem of internal improvements, found its treasury empty, 
it was Girard who loaned one hundred thousand dollars, 
thus affording the State the relief it so badly needed. 
This was probably the last pubHc act of his life. 

A long career of unceasing toil was now drawing to a 
close. Refusing assistance from others, he still insisted 
in giving the same careful attention to the details of his 
great business. On February 12, 1830, while crossing 
the street at Second and Market Streets, he was struck 
and seriously injured by a rapidly driven wagon. It 
lacerated his forehead, cheek, and right ear, and his eye 
was badly injured. His health now rapidly declined, and 
an attack of influenza; then prevalent in the city, pros- 
trated him. He remained in a sort of stupor, from which 
he did not arouse until shortly before his death, when he 
got out of bed and walked across the room, quickly re- 
turning to the bed, he placed his hand to his head and 
exclaimed, " How violent is this disorder ! How very 
extraordinary it is !" These were the last words he 
spoke that could be understood. He expired on the 
26th of December, i83i,at four o'clock in the afternoon, 
aged eighty-one years, seven months, and six days, after 
a life of labor, perseverance, economy, and success which 
had rarely been equalled. 

As soon as his death became known there were many 
expressions of sorrow for the loss of such a distinguished 
citizen. The Select and Common Councils of Philadel- 
phia adopted resolutions of regret. His funeral took 
place on December 30, 183 1, and all that remained of 
the honored " mariner and merchant" was taken to the 



BY GEORGE P. RUPP. lOI 

Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, and placed in a 
vault belonging to the Baron Lallemand. The Baron 
had married Girard's grand-niece. After reposing there 
for nearly twenty years, his remains were removed and 
placed in a marble sarcophagus in the vestibule of 
Girard College. 

I have hitherto dwelt upon the life of Stephen Girard, 
" mariner and merchant." I now desire to enlarge upon 
my text and speak of those godlike qualities which 
have set this rich man apart from other rich men. I 
mean his titles of " humanitarian and philanthropist." 
******** 

If we want a picture of Stephen Girard the humani- 
tarian, we must turn time backward in its flight. 

We must retrace our steps one hundred and four 
years, and learn something of the city of Philadelphia 
and the events which took place during ten months of 
its history, beginning May i, 1793. 

Let us place ourselves in the position of an eye-witness ; 
let us see with the eyes of some young man visiting his 
uncle, who is, perhaps, a substantial trader of this our 
Philadelphia, a city which is not only the capital of the 
nation, but also in every sense the moral, commercial, 
and intellectual metropolis of the new world. This 
Philadelphia of 1793 is the wealthiest and most popu- 
lous city of the infant Republic. Over a thousand ships 
enter its port yearly. Its exports are not much less 
than ten million dollars. Including the suburbs, it has 
a population of fifty thousand souls, living in eight 
thousand well built houses, some of these, indeed, 
quite deserving the title of stately mansions. Nor is 
this all : Philadelphia is growing rapidly, houses are 
building, rents are high, and property is extremely 
valuable. 

Our young man has arrived from the interior of the 



I02 STEPHEN GIRARD. 

State, and, as stage-coaching is dear, he has made the 
journey on foot, grudging the toll money and the 
quarter of a dollar charged for each meal by the way, as 
why should he not, when one dollar is all that is asked 
for a whole week's board in his part of the State. 

Philadelphia in 1793. 

At the upper bridge of the Schuylkill, uncle and 
nephew greet each other. The young man from the 
country is dressed after the manner of his class. He 
wears a check shirt buttoned at the neck, an awkward 
coat made of hemp, and check trousers. His feet are 
bare. The prosperous uncle, on the other hand, who is 
an Indian merchant, has assumed his finest garb, — a 
nankeen coat striped with green, a white silk waist-coat, 
cassimere pantaloons, silk stockings, and shoes of soft 
leather, shining like satin. As the young man walks 
beside his uncle, he is a little disappointed at first, for 
the land facing the Schuylkill is simply divided into 
lots, with a few small houses here and there. His uncle 
explains, however, that the Delaware having greater 
facilities for navigation, the city has grown along the 
banks of that stream, and has extended itself north and 
south beyond the limits. But Centre Square (Broad and 
Market Streets) being reached, our country boy feels 
that he is indeed in Philadelphia. The wide streets, 
running at right angles, are majestic in their regularity ; 
the foot-ways are carefully paved with brick and tile ; the 
houses, too, are of red brick, and join each other in a 
friendly manner. Trees are everywhere, and the names 
of the streets, Sassafras and Mulberry, sound pure and 
sweet to the young countryman. It is a fine city, as 
even prejudiced Englishmen admit its cleanliness and 
order. 

For the rest of the journey the uncle is busy pointing 



BY GEORGE P. RUPP. IO3 

out objects, and answering questions, for, even to a 
dweller in Philadelphia, High Street is a pretty sight. 
There is plenty of leisure and gayety, but no hurrying ; 
elegant carriages roll along, and a stream of handsome, 
well dressed people pass and repass. Mingled in the 
crowd are strangers from all parts of the world, for Phila- 
delphia is not only a prosperous city; it is also the seat 
of the United States government, and therefore the 
resort of diplomats and distinguished travellers. The 
greater part of the crowd, however, are to the manner 
born. Here is the modish gentleman, with powdered 
toupee. His velvet coat has lace at the cuffs, and his 
knee-breeches are made of satin. He is talking frivolities 
with a fine lady, whose hoops, high tossing feathers and 
lace frills make her look like a full-rigged ship. 

Here, too, is the pretty Quakeress in her sad-colored 
silk gown ; and now and then they perceive an Indian 
with a load of skins. Nor is the African slave wanting, 
though, thank God, there are not more than three hun- 
dred in the whole city. And once, at least, a monk from 
Ephrata, with his white cowl, passes them. 

" General George Washington !" cries the uncle ; 
" there goes the President," and the young man looks 
curiously at the fine coach drawn by four mettlesome 
horses. He sees a tall, calm gentleman of noble coun- 
tenance. This grave personage is dressed in fine velvet, 
wears a sword, and has his hair powdered and gathered 
behind into a black silk bag. Occasionally he raises his 
plain cocked hat, which is decked with the American 
cockade. At High Street, just below Sixth, the two 
promenaders pause to notice the President's residence, 
which is a large double house, with a flourishing garden, 
and equalled by few in the city. " There," says the 
uncle, " once lived the traitor Arnold, and now the 
greatest man of the nation dwells there." 



I04 STEPHEN GIRARD. 

Life in Philadelphia in 1793. 

The uncle's house is soon reached, a substantial resi- 
dence at 42 North Front Street. The young man, accus- 
tomed to the quiet of the country, is confused by the 
noise, the tarry odors and the gloom of the street. But 
the inside of the house, with its gay hangings and hand- 
some furniture, excites his admiration. The side-board 
and chairs are mahogany, the candlesticks are plated 
with silver, and for the first time he sees painted china 
and fine English glass, and for the first time, too, his feet 
pressed elegant carpets. While the servant-girl is cover- 
ing the table our young rustic picks up a copy of the 
Federal Gazette. He is somewhat puzzled about the con- 
tents. In one place lottery tickets are announced for 
sale, and in another British goods, brought in by a 
French privateer, are to be parted with at low prices. 

The relatives then sat down to a substantial dinner, 
washed down with some glasses of old Madeira. After 
the meal the old man questions his nephew as to his 
future course of life. If he writes a legible hand the 
uncle will be willing to take him into his own counting- 
house. He must not despair. '' Great oaks from little 
acorns grow." Philadelphia has not a few rich merchants 
who have started from nothing. His own well-to-do 
neighbor, Stephen Girard, began at the lowest step of the 
ladder. He suffered also the additional disadvantage of 
being a foreigner. We can well imagine the boy pricking 
up his ears and asking questions, and we can imagine, 
too, the information he would receive of Girard's rigid, 
but sagacious, policy; of his two vessels to San Domingo ; 
of the magnificent fleet he is building to trade with China 
and India ; of his commodious stores ; his solid, substan- 
tial house, with its solid, substantial furniture; of his 
quiet habits and taciturn manner. Another walk is then 



BY GEORGE P. RUPP. IO5 

proposed. Girard is on his counting-house steps as they 
pass, giving directions for the loading of a wagon. 
Indeed, he is steadying one of the barrels. The young 
man takes a good look at the broad, sturdy merchant 
with gray eyes and thin-lipped, close-set mouth. 

Many and striking are the sights exhibited to the 
young Telemachus. At Mr. Anderson's, at the sign of 
the Sorrel Horse, 39 North Second Street, they see the 
New York mail-stage prance away. It has four passen- 
gers, and it is warranted to reach New York in twenty- 
one hours. Peale's Museum is then visited, and there 
are seen stuffed panthers, grizzly bears, and the shoe 
and stocking of an Irish giant. Then at Eighth and 
High Streets twenty-five cents are paid to see wax- 
works. A little further on they notice the sign of a 
circus. Then a stroll is taken beyond the limits of the 
city, to a suburb called Bush Hill (Seventeenth and 
Spring Garden Streets), where, bowered in trees and 
beautiful with its gardens, is the country-house of the 
late James Hamilton, Esq., governor of Pennsylvania. 
Somewhat foot-sore, the old gentleman leads his nephew 
back to the city, and, after refreshments at the Coffee- 
House, they emerge upon High Street. Night has fallen, 
and triple rows of lamps make a scene like fairy-land, 
while towering above the lights are long silent rows of 
poplar-trees. All is bustle and gayety. The fashionable 
ladies are being carried past, in sedan-chairs, to card- 
parties and the Dancing Assembly. At the corner of 
Twelfth and High Streets, Citizen Genet, the French 
Minister, is holding a levee. The house is brilliantly 
lighted and crowded with guests, for the French are in 
high favor. Through the open door can be seen the 
splendors of the interior and the variety and richness of 
the dresses. This is a fair picture of Philadelphia as it 
was in the middle of May in the year of our Lord 1793. 



I06 STEPHEN GIRARD. 

The City Plague-stricken. 

Let us shift the scene and look at Philadelphia as it 
was three months later. Let us suppose that the young 
nephew has been sent to his uncle's farm in Chester 
County. His uncle has kept in touch with him by letter. 
About the middle of August all letters have ceased. 
Rumors reach the young man that a fever prevails in the 
city, particularly in Water Street, close to his uncle's 
house. The rumors grow and grow. He is told the city 
is involved in confusion and panic. This information is 
brought him by Philadelphians, who come to the farm 
searching for lodging. 

The young man, after communing with himself, resolves 
to do his whole duty : he will go and search for his 
benefactor. Without any more ado, he takes his journey 
toward Philadelphia. As he approaches the city, signs 
of a great disaster multiply. Death, like a conquering 
army, has entered the capital, and the people are flee- 
ing. Every farm-house, and even the very barns, are 
filled with tenants. At every farm-gate are fugitives, 
seeking knowledge from home. The roads are crowded 
with foot-passengers and wagons loaded with personal 
effects. Here are weeping mothers and frightened chil- 
dren dragging along bundles of clothing. Terror is 
behind them and uncertainty before, for the money 
is wanting to purchase the very necessaries of life. The 
air is full of vague rumors. 

At sundown our traveller enters the plague-stricken 
city. This must be High Street, for the triple lamps are 
burning. Where are the carriages and sedan-chairs ? 
Where are the gay throng, the bustle, the levity, the 
brilliantly lighted mansions ? All is gloom, silence, and 
stagnation. From the Schuylkill to President Washing- 
ton's residence he meets not more than a dozen people, 



BY GEORGE P. RUPP. IO7 

and they walk in the middle of the street, and avoid each 
other. Even when two speak they do not shake hands, 
but stand apart with vinegar-soaked handkerchiefs at 
their mouths. Everywhere there is the smell of garlic, 
camphor, and tar. In one court a great fire burns. Stay ! 
Here is a vehicle. Alas ! it is a hearse, and as he pauses 
two negroes carry out a dead body. 

Desolation and distress and crime possess the metropo- 
lis of the infant Republic. The young man reaches his 
uncle's house. As he passes the great inn on Front 
Street he sees that it, too, is barred, darkened, and de- 
serted. He is now on the steps of 42 North Front. A 
cart driven by a negro jolts along, bearing a coffin, for 
this is the very centre of the pestilence. The lower part 
of the house is dark, but there is a faint light in the 
upper window, and after a little knocking he finds en- 
trance by the yard-gate, and, passing beneath the fruit- 
laden grape-vines, he enters the house. 

As he ascends the stairs a horrid, deadly vapor as- 
sails him, an odor entirely different from the drug-in- 
fected atmosphere of the city. This corrosive poison- 
ous fluid snatches strength from his limbs, and bows 
him with a sudden sickness. On he goes — horrible 
grows the effluvia — until he reaches the upper floor, to 
find he is the only living person in that gloomy house. 
All the rest are the victims of the pestilence. I might 
enlarge on this thing, but I have no desire to produce 
disgust. Any medical work will give the curious symp- 
toms, progress, and final end of the noisome disease 
called the yellow fever. 

But I will ask you to accompany me a little further. 
We will go to the Bush Hill hospital, where the young 
man is soon borne. We have seen this place already, 
when it was the elegant and commodious mansion of the 
governor of the State. 



I08 STEPHEN GIRARD. 

Scorched and dazzled by the sun, lying on hard boards, 
he is borne over rough pavements. When he arouses 
from his stupor he finds himself lying on a dirty mat- 
tress, in a dirty room, crowded with other groaning 
victims of the disease. The atmosphere is polluted, and 
the dying and a few convalescents crowd together. 
From the lower rooms come the sounds of laughter, for 
there the nurses and attendants, who receive large 
wages from the city, are consuming the wines and 
cordials intended for the sick. Now and then a drunken 
nurse enters the room with a coffin, into which a body is 
hustled, in order to be dragged away for burial. No words 
could express the dirt, neglect, and mismanagement of 
the Bush Hill hospital prior to September 15, 1793. 

It is doubtful if any large community, since the days 
of the great plague of London in the time of Charles II., 
presented a more frightful picture of terror, suffering, 
and desolation than Philadelphia during the yellow fever 
epidemic of 1793, which converted the beautiful metrop- 
olis into a foul and disgusting charnel-house. The 
scenes which Defoe has pictured of London, during the 
pestilence of 1665, were enacted every day during those 
unhappy days in Philadelphia. In the account which 
Mathew Carey wrote, in the "Journal of Elizabeth 
Drinker," and in Charles Brockden Brown's realistic 
novel, " Arthur Mervyn,'^ we find descriptions of scenes 
that are too loathsome to repeat. 

The city and its suburbs had a population of nearly 
fifty thousand people. From the lowest hut to the 
stateliest mansion terror reigned supreme. The people 
became panic-stricken, and the roads leading to Lancaster, 
Wilmington, Trenton, and other places were crowded 
with fugitives. Very nearly all the federal and municipal 
officials left the city ; many of the physicians and clergy- 



BY GEORGE P. RUPP. IO9 

men found their courage unequal to their duty. Whole 
streets became tenantless, and the hearse was the vehicle 
most frequently seen. Self-preservation made the inhabi- 
tants forget the commonest instincts of humanity. Over 
one-third of the population had fled. All the news- 
papers, with the single exception of the Federal Gazette, 
had suspended publication. The coffee-house, the library, 
and most of the churches were closed. 

On the morning of the loth of September, 1793, an 
advertisement appeared in the Federal Gazette, which 
stated that the overseers of the poor required immediate 
assistance, and hoped that among the benevolent citizens 
there might be found some who would volunteer their 
assistance. On the 12th of September, in response to 
this call, a meeting was held at the City Hall, and 
twenty-seven noble-hearted men formed a committee, to 
take measures to relieve the distressed. They first 
directed their attention to the hospital at Bush Hill, 
which was reported as being ** without order or arrange- 
ment, far from being clean, and stands in immediate 
need of several qualified persons to begin and establish 
the necessary arrangements." To enter this pest-house 
was but a passage to the grave. Money could not pur- 
chase such services. 

Stephen Girard — Humanitarian. 

On the 15 th of September, at the meeting of the com- 
mittee, an incident occurred which it is best to give in 
the words of the late Mathew Carey in his pamphlet : 

"At the meeting on the 15th, a circumstance [occurred] to which the 
most glowing pencil could hardly do justice. Stephen Girard, a wealthy 
merchant, a native of France, and one of the members of the committee, 
touched with the wretched situation of the sufferers at Bush Hill, volun- 
tarily and unexpectedly offered himself as a manager to superintend that 
hospital. 



no STEPHEN GIRARD. 

The surprise and satisfaction, excited by this extraordinary effort of hu- 
manity, can be better conceived than expressed. Peter Helm, a native 
of Pennsylvania, also a member, offered his services in the same depart- 
ment. Their offers were accepted ; and the same afternoon they entered 
on the execution of their dangerous and praisevi^orthy office. 

" To form a just estimate of the value of the offer of these men, it is 
necessary to take in full consideration the general consternation which at 
that period pervaded every quarter of the city, and which made attendance 
on the sick be regarded as a little less than a certain sacrifice. Unin- 
fluenced by any reflections of this kind, without any possible inducement 
but the purest motives of humanity, they came forward and offered them- 
selves as the forlorn hope of the committee. I trust that the gratitude of 
their fellow-citizens will remain as long as the memory of their beneficent 
conduct, which I hope will not die with the present generation." 

Girard immediately took charge of the interior of the 
hospital, and he soon made his wonderful influence felt. 
Order reigned where all had been chaos, cleanliness 
where filth had been supreme; and within twenty-four 
hours he reported the hospital ready to afford every as- 
sistance. As one turns over the pages of the minutes of 
the committee, day after day, for nearly two months, we 
find the line, "Stephen Girard and Peter Helm at the 
hospital." Nor did the services of that committee end 
when the disease ceased to exist. They supplied the 
poor with money, provisions, and fuel. They furnished 
burial for the dead. They took under their care one hun- 
dred and ninety-two orphans of those who had died of 
the fever, and they only ceased their labors when they 
had taken precautions against a similar calamity in the 
future. We can form some idea of the terrible results of 
this epidemic, from the fact that from the ist of August 
to the 9th of November, 1793, there were four thousand 
and thirty deaths, nearly one-tenth of the population. 

Girard placed a very modest estimate upon his ser- 
vices during this period. Yet few men have equalled 
the courage and spirit of humanity he displayed. 



BY GEORGE P. RUPP. I I I 

A full knowledge of Stephen Girard's character con- 
veys, in the minds of those who have studied it, a vivid 
impression of his remarkable qualities. The reverse of 
tall, of very solid build, with a short, thick neck and 
fearless temperament, all his sturdy fighting endowments 
took the direction of indomitable energy in enterprise 
and of intrepid assertion in everything right and good. 
It may be granted that he was eccentric, but eccentricity 
needs defining. He was a rare example of a life where 
a man's word was as good as his bond. Money, how- 
ever, was not his God. He did not accumulate property 
for the mere love of it. He believed that the true bless- 
ings of life came through justice and not mercy. 

Two facts stand out prominently in the earthly passage 
of this markedly gifted man, — his devotion to his fellow 
men and his love for his country. He was fearless, be- 
cause he was a strong man, whose hope dimmed not, 
whose faith faltered not, and whose courage forsook him 
not. By residence he belonged to Philadelphia, by faith 
to the Roman Catholic Church; but in a truer, wider 
sense he belonged to no city, to no sect, but to the people 
of the State, to the cause of the greatest good for all 
men. Whatever he espoused, whatever he touched, he 
enriched with the genius of a determined spirit strong 
for success. 

Poor, struggling, full of ambition, full of hope in his 
youth ; active, determined, enterprising, and charitable in 
the prime of life ; mourned and regretted in his death ; 
such was the life of the most eminent philanthropist of 
his time, who lies in the beautiful Greek temple he planned, 
awaiting the day when all shall be judged. 

It is difficult in a short article to write of Mr. Girard's 
splendid life record, of his love for his adopted city and 
country, of his humanity to his fellow men, and of his 
great success in the business world. To write all this 



112 STEPHEN GIRARD. 

would mean to write the financial and commercial his- 
tory of the country during its early and critical periods. 
His soul has gone to its reward, but his great philan- 
thropy will live on to bless and enrich the lives of thou- 
sands. 

His College. 

If we look over the whole field of education we find, 
notwithstanding the levelling spirit of democracy, the 
great increase of comforts and modern fortunes, that 
education is mainly still the luxury of the privileged 
classes, be the privilege that of rank, as in Europe or 
Great Britain, or wealth, as in our own land. Nor is this 
only true of the colleges and universities of the world, 
for schools that have been founded by charitable men 
and women for the amelioration of the hardships of 
orphans and children of the poor, have been diverted 
from the original intentions of the founders, and filled 
with children of parents with limited, but sufficient, in- 
comes. 

Christ Hospital and Dulwich College are noted exam- 
ples of this maladministration. Nor is this the whole 
of the picture ; some schools which have not been turned 
from their original purpose, have remained poorly en- 
dowed, and at the best located in unwholesome neigh- 
borhoods. Dickens's picture of the child who attended 
the school of the " Charitable Grinders" has pained and 
amused the readers of " Dombey and Son," and is a good 
example of this. 

In saying that education is mainly the luxury of the 
rich and well-to-do, I speak of what is inevitable in the 
very nature of things. The hewer of wood and drawer 
of water must ever make up the majority of mankind, 
and the poor boy has only a few years to spare from the 
hard and necessary struggle of life. The university hall- 
mark is not for him ; yet he longs for the higher things 



BY GEORGE P. RUPP. II3 

of language, philosophy, and science. So keen is that 
hunger, that many of our high schools try to whet his 
appetite with an ostentatious banquet of broken bits, and 
too often they turn out the smatterer with an impover- 
ished body and a narrow mind, knowing nothing of the 
history of his country or the three R's. 

But the great school of Stephen Girard has not fallen 
into this mistake. The orphan is taken from his narrow 
surroundings and placed in the midst of order and beauty. 
He is surrounded with comfort, even luxury ; he is gently 
corrected, kindly entreated. His teachers, caretakers, 
food, and clothing are of the best. He only lacks one 
thing, and that God has taken from him, — a father's care. 
He is never over-worked nor over-trained, he is neither 
enervated by indulgence nor broken by tyranny. He 
hears good music and eloquent discourses. He is taught 
to march and encouraged in the pathway of honor, and 
above all he is thoroughly and constantly taught by pre- 
cept and example the great language of the world, — 
English. He reads well, writes well, ciphers well, and 
he is taught the use of tools. He can use the hammer, 
the plane, and the saw ; and the result of all this is that 
the sickly, ill-regulated child has become the healthy, 
intelligent young man. Keen, obedient, and well-man- 
nered, the best kind of a beginning of that which con- 
stitutes the glory of any country, the sober, virtuous, and 
intelligent citizen. " In my opinion," said a well known 
official of Girard College, '* while the brilliant boy is a 
rara avis, our average of intelligence, propriety, and man- 
liness is not surpassed by any school in the world. And 
in my observation, extending over a score of years, our 
progress has been onward and upward. We turn out 
good Americans and ninety times out of a hundred good 
citizens." 

Any one who will read the portion of the will of Ste- 

8 



114 STEPHEN GIRARD. 

phen GIrard that relates to the endowment of a college 
for orphans, will readily perceive he did not intend to 
create an ordinary orphan asylum. He put himself in 
the place of a father to the orphan, and determined that 
his adopted children should have those advantages that 
were within the reach of children favored by the circum- 
stances of their parents. He expressly states, " I would 
have them taught facts and things rather than words 
and signs'' With this knowledge of the wishes of the 
founder, the directors have been making the best use in 
carrying them out. 

The College is located on ground that Girard purchased 
for the purpose and was known as Peel's Hall. It con- 
tains forty-one acres, and is enclosed with a stone wall 
sixteen inches in thickness and ten feet in height. The 
College was opened January i, 1848, with one hundred 
pupils and five buildings. The number of pupils have 
increased to nearly sixteen hundred and the buildings to 
fourteen. The buildings are all, with two exceptions, 
built of white marble, and are used as school and section 
rooms, dormitories, administration offices, infirmary, laun- 
dry, boiler house, etc., and all supplied with the best 
modern conveniences. The Main Building, which is con- 
structed after the most minute details set down in Girard's 
will, is one of the finest specimens of Greek architecture 
in the world. The Chapel is a beautiful Gothic building, 
designed by a graduate of the College. Services of a 
non-sectarian character are held there every morning 
and afternoon. 

The government of the College is under the direction 
of a president and vice-president. The faculty is com- 
posed of sixty-seven professors and teachers. The course 
of instruction commences with the first form, or primary 
grade, and ends with the fourth form. 

The household is supervised by a matron and assistant 



BY GEORGE P. RUPP. II5 

matron, twenty-four governesses, and sixteen prefects. 
The department of music is a very important adjunct; 
and in addition to vocal music and sight-singing there is 
a very fine band of thirty-three pieces. The battalion of 
five hundred and eighty cadets is under the charge of an 
officer of the United States army detailed for the pur- 
pose by the War Department. In addition to these 
officers there is a steward, assistant steward, a visiting 
and a resident physician, a corps of trained nurses, and 
a dentist. 

The daily life of the College commences at 6 a.m., and 
until 8.45 P.M. every minute is occupied with study, 
school, play, meals, and chapel service. 

By the terms of the will, pupils are admitted between 
the ages of six and ten years, and are permitted, under 
certain conditions, to remain until they are eighteen years 
old. 

His Trusts. 

At the time of his death, Stephen Girard was the 
richest man in America, and there were few private for- 
tunes abroad that surpassed his. His estate was valued 
at over seven millions of dollars. 

He bequeathed to his relatives one hundred and forty 
thousand dollars ; to public charities of Philadelphia, one 
hundred and twenty thousand dollars ; and after some 
private bequests, the residuary fund to erect and maintain 
a college for poor white male orphans. 

The bequests to public charities of Philadelphia were 
thirty thousand dollars to the Pennsylvania Hospital ; 
twenty thousand dollars to the Pennsylvania Institution 
for the Deaf and Dumb; ten thousand dollars to the 
Orphan Asylum of Philadelphia; ten thousand dollars 
to "The Comptrollers of Public Schools," the income 
of which is now used for the purchase of books for the 
libraries of the public schools ; ten thousand dollars 



Il6 STEPHEN GIRARD. 

were bequeathed to the Society for the Relief of Poor 
and Distressed Masters of Ships and their Widows and 
Children ; twenty thousand dollars to the Grand Lodge 
of Pennsylvania for the relief of poor Masons; six 
thousand dollars for the erection of a school-house in 
Passyunk Township. Mr. Custis, in his **The Public 
Schools of Philadelphia," gives the following account of 
this school : 

"An interesting old landmark is the Girard Consolidated School at 
Passyunk Avenue and Eighteenth Street, facing Rope Ferry Road. It is 
a substantial brick building, and in its time was an adornment to Passyunk 
Township, as that part of the city was known in the early days. It is 
now regarded with veneration by reason of its history, but for practical 
school purposes is no longer a desirable building, and a new structure is 
to be erected on an adjoining lot. 

*' The Girard School was erected in 1833. It was not organized as a 
public school, but was provided for by Stephen Girard in his will. What 
is known as the Girard homestead, which was Mr. Girard's country resi- 
dence, is located a short distance from the school. . . . 

"The school was opened with about thirty pupils. ... It struggled 
along for several years, but was finally closed. In 1867 the building was 
turned over to the Board of Public Education, and was reopened as a 
public school with about sixty pupils. Its attendance has increased in 
recent years, there being at present over two hundred pupils enrolled." 

Ten thousand dollars were bequeathed in trust, the 
interest to be used in purchasing fuel for poor white 
house-keepers and room-keepers. For the improvement 
of Delaware Avenue, five hundred thousand dollars were 
left in trust. 

One of the brightest pages in the history of Philadel- 
phia is the administration by the Board of Directors of 
City Trusts of the trusts bequeathed to the city. The 
fidelity, honesty, and ability of these gentlemen are 
unquestioned. Through their careful management the 
Girard Trust has increased to over fifteen millions of 
dollars. The members of the Board of Directors of 



BY GEORGE P. RUPP. II7 

City Trusts are gentlemen of social, financial, and com- 
mercial standing in the city, and for their faithful and 
arduous services they receive no remuneration. The 
Board consists of twelve members, appointed by the 
judges of the courts, and three ex-officio members, viz.: 
the Mayor of Philadelphia and the Presidents of the 
Select and Common Councils. 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



THE WILL 



OF THE LATE 



STEPHEN GIRARD, ESQ. 

Dated February l6, 1830. Codicil dated June 20, 1831. 
Proved December 31, 183 1. Recorded Philadelphia Will Book 10, p. i< 



I, Stephen Girard, of the City of Philadelphia, in the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, mariner and merchant, 
being of sound mind, memory, and understanding, do 
make and publish this my last will and testament, in 
manner following, that is to say .... 

I. I give and bequeath unto " The Contributors to the 
Pennsylvania Hospital," of which corporation I am a 
member, the sum of thirty thousand dollars, upon the 
following conditions, namely, that the said sum shall be 
added to their capital, and shall remain a part thereof 
forever, to be placed at interest and the interest thereof 
to be applied, in the first place to pay to my black 
woman Hannah (to whom I hereby give her freedom) the 
sum of two hundred dollars per year, in quarterly pay- 
ments of fifty dollars each in advance, during all the 
term of her life ; and, hi the second place ^ the said interest 
to be applied to the use and accommodation of the sick 
in the said hospital, and for providing and at all times 
having competent matrons, and a sufficient number of 
nurses and assistant nurses, in order not only to promote 
the purposes of the said hospital, but to encrease this 
last class of useful persons much wanted in our city : 

n. I give and bequeath to " The Pennsylvania Insti- 
tution for the Deaf and Dumb," the sum of twenty 
thotisand dollars, for the use of that institution : 

121 



122 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

III. I give and bequeath to " The Orphan Asylum of 
Philadelphia," the sum of ten thousand dollars for the 
use of that Institution : 

IV. I give and bequeath to " the comptrollers of the 
public schools for the city and county of Philadelphia" 
the sum of ten thousand dollars for the use of the schools 
upon the Lancaster system, in the first section of the 
first school district of Pennsylvania. 

V. I give and bequeath to ^' The Mayor, Aldermen 
and Citizens of Philadelphia," the sum of ten thousand 
dollars, in trust safely to invest the same in some pro- 
ductive fund, and with the interest and dividends arising 
therefrom to purchase fuel between the months of March 
and August in every year forever, and in the month 
of January in every year forever distribute the same, 
amongst poor white house-keepers and room-keepers, of 
good character, residing in the city of Philadelphia. 

VI. I give and bequeath to the society for the relief 
of poor and distressed masters of ships, their widows 
and children, (of which society I am a member) the 
sum of ten thousand dollars, to be added to their capital 
stock, for the uses and purposes of said society : 

VII. I give and bequeath to the gentlemen, who shall 
be trustees of the Masonic Loan at the time of my 
decease, the sum of twenty thousand dollars, including 
therein ten thousand and nine hundred dollars due to me, 
part of the Masonic Loan, and any interest that may be 
due thereon at the time of my decease, in trust for the 
use and benefit of " the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania 
and masonic jurisdiction thereto belonging," and to be 
paid over by the said trustees to the said Grand Lodge 
for the purposes of being invested in some safe stock or 
funds, or other good security, and the dividends and in- 
terest arising therefrom to be again so invested and 
added to the capital, without applying any part thereof 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1 23 

to any other purpose until the whole capital shall 
amount to thirty thousand dollars, when the same shall 
forever after remain a permanent fund or capital, of the 
said amount of thirty thousand dollars, the interest 
whereof shall be applied from time to time to the relief 
of poor and respectable brethren : and in order that the 
real and benevolent purposes of masonic institutions 
may be attained, I recommend to the several lodges not 
to admit to membership, or to receive members from 
other lodges, unless the applicants shall absolutely be 
men of sound and good morals. 

VIII. I give and bequeath unto Philip Peltz, John 
Lentz, Francis Hesley, Jacob Baker and Adam Young, 
of Passyunk township, in the county of Philadelphia, 
the sum of six tJiousand dollars, in trust that they or the 
survivors or survivor of them shall purchase a suitable 
piece of ground, as near as may be in the centre of said 
township, and thereon erect a substantial brick build- 
ing, sufficiently large for a school house and the resi- 
dence of a school-master, one part thereof for poor male 
white children, and the other part for poor female white 
children of said township : and as soon as the said school- 
house shall have been built, that they the said trustees 
or the survivors or survivor of them shall convey the 
said piece of ground and house thereon erected, and 
shall pay over such balance of said sum as may remain 
unexpended, to any board of directors and their succes- 
sors in trust, which may at the time exist or be by law 
constituted, consisting of at least twelve discreet inhabi- 
tants of the said township, and to be annually chosen by 
the inhabitants thereof; the said piece of ground and 
house to be carefully maintained by said directors and 
their successors solely for the purposes of a school as 
aforesaid forever, and the said balance to be securely in- 
vested as a permanent fund, the interest thereof to be 



124 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

applied from time to time towards the education in the 
said school of any number of such poor white children 
of said township ; and I do hereby recommend to the 
citizens of the said township to make additions to the 
fund whereof I have laid the foundation. 

IX. I give and devise my house and lot of ground 
thereto belonging, situate in rue Ramouet aux Char- 
trons, near the city of Bordeaux, in France, and the 
rents issues and profits thereof to my brother Etienne 
Girard and my niece Victoire Fenellon (daughter of my 
late sister Sophia Girard Capayron) (both residing in 
France) in equal moieties for the life of my said brother, 
and, on his decease, one moiety of the said house and 
lot to my said niece Victoire and her heirs forever, and 
the other moiety to the six children of my said brother, 
namely, John Fabricius, Marguerite, Anne Henriette, 
Jean August, Marie, and Madelaine Henriette, share and 
share alike (the issue of any deceased child, if more than 
one to take amongst them the parent's share) and their 
heirs forever. 

X. I give and bequeath to my said brother Etienne 
Girard the sum of five thousand dollars^ and the like 
sum of five thousand dollars to each of his six children 
above named : if any of the said children shall die prior 
to the receipt of his or her legacy of five thousand dol- 
lars, the said sum shall be paid, and I give and bequeath 
the same, to any issue of such deceased child, if more 
than one share and share alike. 

XL I give and bequeath to my said niece Victoire 
Fenellon the sum of five thousand dollars. 

XII. I give and bequeath absolutely to my niece 
Antoinetta, now married to M' Hemphill, the sum of 
ten thousand dollars, and I also give and bequeath to 
her the sum of fifty thousand dollars, to be paid over 
to a trustee or trustees to be appointed by my execu- 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. I 25 

tors, which trustee or trustees shall place and continue 
the said sum of fifty thousand dollars upon good security, 
and pay the interest and dividends thereof as they shall 
from time to time accrue, to my said niece for her sepa- 
rate use, during the term of her life, and from and imme- 
diately after her decease, to pay and distribute the capital 
to and among such of her children and the issue of de- 
ceased children, and in such parts and shares as she the 
said Antoinetta, by any instrument under her hand and 
seal executed in the presence of at least two credible 
witnesses shall direct and appoint, and for default of 
such appointment then to and among the said children 
and issue of deceased children in equal shares, such 
issue of deceased children if more than one to take 
only the share which their deceased parent would have 
taken if living. 

XIII. I give and bequeath unto my niece Carolina, 
now married to M' Haslam, the sum of ten thousand 
dollars, to be paid over to a trustee or trustees to be 
appointed by my executors, which trustee or trustees 
shall place and continue the said money upon good 
security, and pay the interest and dividends thereof from 
time to time, as they shall accrue, to my said niece, for 
her separate use during the term of her life ; and, from 
and immediately after her decease, to pay and distribute 
the capital to and among such of her children and issue 
of deceased children, and in such parts and shares, as 
she the said Carolina, by any instrument under her hand 
and seal executed, in the presence of at least two credible 
witnesses, shall direct and appoint, and for default of such 
appointment, then to and among the said children and 
issue of deceased children, in equal shares, such issue of 
deceased children if more than one, to take only the 
share which the deceased parent would have taken if 
living : but if my said niece Carolina shall leave no 



126 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

issue, then the said trustee or trustees on her decease 
shall pay the said capital and any interest accrued thereon 
to and among Caroline Lallemand (niece of the said 
Carolina) and the children of the aforesaid Antoinetta 
Hemphill, share and share alike. 

XIV. I give and bequeath to my niece Henrietta, now 
married to D' Clark, the sum of ten thousand dollars ; 
and I give and bequeath to her daughter Caroline (in the 
last clause above named) the sum of twenty thousand 
dollars — the interest of the said sum of twenty thousand 
dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be 
applied to the maintenance and education of the said 
Caroline during her minority, and the principal with any 
accumulated interest to be paid to the said Caroline, on 
her arrival at the age of twenty-one years. 

XV. Unto each of the captains, who shall be in my 
employment at the time of my decease, either in port 
or at sea, having charge of one of my ships or vessels, 
and having performed at least two voyages in my ser- 
vice, I give and bequeath the sum oi fifteen hundred 
dollars — provided he shall have brought safely into the 
port of Philadelphia, or if at sea at the time of my de- 
cease shall bring safely into that port, my ship or vessel 
last entrusted to him, and also that his conduct during 
the last voyage shall have been in every respect con- 
formable to my instructions to him. 

XVI. All persons, who, at the time of my decease, 
shall be bound to me by indenture, as apprentices or 
servants, and who shall then be under age, I direct my 
executors to assign to suitable masters immediately after 
my decease, for the remainder of their respective terms, 
on conditions as favourable as they can in regard to 
education, clothing, and freedom dues ; to each of the 
said persons, in my service and under age at the time of 
my decease I give and bequeath the sum oi five hun- 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1 27 

dred dollars, which sums respectively I direct my exec- 
utors safely to invest in public stock, to apply the inter- 
est and dividends thereof towards the education of the 
several apprentices or servants, for whom the capital is 
given, respectively, and at the termination of the appren- 
ticeship or service of each to pay to him or her the said 
sum of five hundred dollars and any interest accrued 
thereon, if any such interest shall remain unexpended : 
in assigning any indenture, preference shall be given to 
the mother, father, or next relation, as assignee, should 
such mother, father, or relative desire it, and be at the 
same time respectable and competent. 

XVII. I give and bequeath to Francis Hesley (son of 
M'^ S. Hesley, who is mother of Marianne Hesley) the 
sum of one thousand dollars, over and above such sum 
as may be due to him at my decease. 

XVni. I charge my real estate in the state of Penn- 
sylvania with the payment of the several annuities or 
sums following (the said annuities to be paid by the 
treasurer or other proper officer of the city of Philadel- 
phia appointed by the corporation thereof for the pur- 
pose out of the rents and profits of said real estate, 
hereinafter directed to be kept constantly rented) 
namely : 

1. I give and bequeath to M" Elizabeth Ingersoll, 
widow of Jared Ingersoll, esq. late of the city of Phila- 
delphia, counsellor at law, an annuity or yearly sum 
of one thousand dollars, to be paid in half yearly pay- 
ments, in advance, of five hundred dollars each during 
her life : — 

2. I give and bequeath to M" Catherine Girard, now 
widow of M' J. B. Hoskins, who died in the isle of 
France, an annuity or yearly sum oi four hmidred dollars, 
to be paid in half yearly payments in advance of two 
hundred dollars each, during her life. 



128 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

3. I give and bequeath to M'^ Jane Taylor, my present 
house keeper (the widow of the late captain Alexander 
Taylor, who was master of my ship Helvetius and died 
in my employment) an annuity or yearly sum of five 
hundred dollars, to be paid in half yearly payments in 
advance of two hundred and fifty dollars each, during 
her life. 

4. I give and bequeath to M'^ S. Hesley, my house- 
keeper at my place in Passyunk Township, an annuity 
or yearly sum oi five hundred dollars, to be paid in half 
yearly payments in advance of two hundred and fifty 
dollars each during her life. 

5. I give and bequeath to Marianne Hesley, daughter 
of M" S. Hesley, an annuity or yearly sum of three 
hundred dollars, to be paid to her mother for her use in 
half yearly payments in advance of one hundred and fifty 
dollars each, until the said Marianne shall have attained 
the age of twenty-one years, when the said annuity shall 
cease, and the said Marianne will receive the five hundred 
dollars given to her and other indented persons, accord- 
ing to clause XVI. of this will : 

6. I give and bequeath to my late house-keeper, Mary 
Kenton, an annuity or yearly sum oi three hundred dollars, 
to be paid in half yearly payments in advance of one 
hundred and fifty dollars each during her life. 

7. I give and bequeath to M" Deborah Scott, sister of 
Mary Kenton, and wife of M'' Edwin T. Scott, an annuity 
or yearly sum of three hundred dollars, to be paid in half 
yearly payments in advance of one hundred and fifty 
dollars each, during her life. 

8. I give and bequeath to M" Catharine McLaren, 
sister of Mary Kenton, and wife of M' M. McLaren, an 
annuity or yearly sum of three hundred dollars, to be 
paid in half yearly payments in advance of one hundred 
and fifty dollars each, during her life. 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1 29 

9. I give and bequeath to M" Amelia G. Taylor, wife 
of M' Rich'^ M. Taylor, an annuity or yearly sum of tliree 
htindred dollars to be paid in half yearly payments in 
advance of one hundred and fifty dollars each during her 
life. 

XIX. All that part of my real and personal estate, 
near Washita, in the state of Louisiana, the said real 
estate consisting of upwards of two hundred and eight 
thousand arpens or acres of land, and including therein 
the settlement hereinafter mentioned, I give, devise, and 
bequeath, as follows, namely : i. I give devise and be- 
queath to the corporation of the City of New Orleans, 
their successors and assigns, all that part of my real 
estate, constituting the settlement formed on my behalf 
by my particular friend Judge Henry Bree, of Washita, 
consisting of upwards of one thousand arpens or acres of 
land with the appurtenances and improvements thereon, 
and also all the personal estate thereto belonging and 
thereon remaining, including upwards of thirty slaves 
now on said settlement and their encrease, in trust, how- 
ever, and subject to the following reservations : 

I desire, that no part of the said estate or property, or 
the slaves thereon, or their encrease, shall be disposed of 
or sold for the term of twenty years from and after my 
decease, should the said judge Henry Bree survive me 
and live so long, but that the said settlement shall be 
kept up by the said judge Henry Bree, for and during 
said term of twenty years, as if it was his own, that is, 
it shall remain under his sole care and control, he shall 
improve the same by raising such produce as he may 
deem most advisable, and, after paying taxes, and all ex- 
penses in keeping up the settlement by clothing the 
slaves and otherwise, he shall have and enjoy for his own 
use all the nett profits of said settlement: — provided 
however and I desire that the said judge Henry Bree 

9 



130 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

shall render annually to the corporation of the City of 
New Orleans, a report of the state of the settlement, the 
income and expenditurethereof, the number and encrease 
of the slaves, and the nett result of the whole. I desire 
that, at the expiration of the said term of twenty years, 
or on the decease of the said Judge Henry Bree, should 
he not live so long, the land and improvements form- 
ing said settlement, the slaves thereon or thereto be- 
longing, and all other appurtenant personal property, 
shall be sold, as soon as the said corporation shall 
deem it advisable to do so, and the proceeds of the 
said sale or sales shall be applied by the said corpora- 
tion to such uses and purposes as they shall consider 
most likely to promote the health and general pros- 
perity of the inhabitants of the city of New Orleans : 
But, until the said sale shall be made, the said corpora- 
tion shall pay all taxes, prevent waste or intrusion, and 
so manage the said settlement and the slaves and their 
encrease thereon, as to derive an income, and the said 
income shall be applied from time to time, to the same 
uses and purposes for the health and general prosperity 
of the said inhabitants. 

2. I give devise and bequeath to the Mayor Alder- 
men and citizens of Philadelphia, their successors and 
assigns, two undivided third parts of all the rest and 
residue of my said real estate, being the lands unim- 
proved near Washita in the said state of Louisiana, in 
trust, that, in common with the corporation of the city 
of New Orleans, they shall pay the taxes on the said 
lands, and preserve them from waste or intrusion, for the 
term of ten years from and after my decease, and, at the 
end of the said term, when they shall deem it advisable 
to do so, shall sell and dispose of their interest in said 
lands gradually from time to time, and apply the pro- 
ceeds of such sales to the same uses and purposes herein- 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. I3I 

after declared and directed of and concerning the residue 
of my personal estate. 

3. And I give devise and bequeath to the Corporation 
of the city of New Orleans, their successors and assigns, 
the remaining one undivided third part of the said lands, 
in trust, in common with the Mayor Aldermen and 
citizens of Philadelphia, to pay the taxes on the said 
lands and preserve them from waste and intrusion for 
the term of ten years from and after my decease, and, at 
the end of the said term when they shall deem it advis- 
able to do so, to sell and dispose of their interest in said 
lands gradually from time to time, and to apply the pro- 
ceeds of such sales to such uses and purposes as the said 
corporation may consider most likely to promote the 
health and general prosperity of the inhabitants of the 
City of New Orleans. 

XX. And whereas I have been for a long time im- 
pressed with the importance of educating the poor, and 
of placing them by the early cultivation of their minds 
and the development of their moral principles, above the 
many temptations, to which, through poverty and igno- 
rance they are exposed ; and I am particularly desirous 
to provide for such a number of poor male white orphan 
children, as can be trained in one institution, a better 
education as well as a more comfortable maintenance 
than they usually receive from the application of the 
public funds : And whereas, together with the object 
just adverted to I have sincerely at heart the welfare of 
the city of Philadelphia, and, as a part of it, am desirous 
to improve the neighborhood of the river Delaware, so 
that the health of the citizens may be promoted and pre- 
served, and that the eastern part of the city may be made 
to correspond better with the interior : Now, I do give 
devise and bequeath all the residue and remainder of my 
real and per so7ial estate of every sort and kind and wherso- 



132 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

ever situate (the real estate in Pennsylvania charged as 
aforesaid) unto "The Mayor, aldermen and citizens of 
Philadelphia, their successors and assigns in trust to and 
for the several uses intents and purposes hereinafter 
mentioned and declared of and concerning the same, that 
is to say : So far as regards my real estate in Pennsyl- 
vania, in trust, that no part thereof shall ever be sold or 
alienated by the said The Mayor Aldermen and citizens 
of Philadelphia or their successors, but the same shall 
forever thereafter be let from time to time to good ten- 
ants, at yearly or other rents and upon leases in posses- 
sion not exceeding five years from the commencement 
thereof, and that the rents issues and profits arising 
therefrom shall be applied towards keeping that part of 
the said real estate situate in the city and Liberties of 
Philadelphia constantly in good repair (parts elsewhere 
situate to be kept in repair by the tenants thereof re- 
spectively) and towards improving the same whenever 
necessary by erecting new buildings, and that the nett 
residue (after paying the several annuities herein before 
provided for) be applied to the same uses and purposes 
as are herein declared of and concerning the residue of 
my personal estate : And so far as regards my real estate 
in Kentucky, now under the care of Messrs Triplett and 
Burmley, in trust to sell and dispose of the same, when- 
ever it may be expedient to do so, and to apply the pro- 
ceeds of such sale to the same uses and purposes as are 
herein declared of and concerning the residue of my 
personal estate. 

XXL And so far as regards the residue of my per- 
sonal estate, in trust, as to two millions of dollars, part 
thereof, to apply and expend so much of that sum as 
may be necessary — in erecting as soon as practicably may 
be, in the centre of my square of ground between High 
and Chesnut streets, and Eleventh and Twelfth streets. 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1 33 

in the city of Philadelphia (which square of ground I 
hereby devote for the purposes hereinafter stated, and for 
no other, for ever) a permanent College, with suitable out- 
buildings, sufficiently spacious for the residence and ac- 
commodation of at least three hundred scholars, and the 
requisite teachers and other persons necessary in such an 
institution as I direct to be established ; and in supplying 
the said college and out-buildings with decent and suita- 
ble furniture, as well as books and all other things 
needful to carry into effect my general design. The 
said College shall be constructed with the most durable 
materials and in the most permanent manner, avoiding 
needless ornament, and attending chiefly to the strength, 
convenience and neatness of the whole : It shall be at 
least one hundred and ten feet east and west, and one 
hundred and sixty feet north and south, and shall be 
built on lines parallel with High and Chesnut streets 
and Eleventh and Twelfth streets, provided those lines 
shall constitute at their junction right angles : It shall 
be three stories in height, each story at least fifteen 
feet high in the clear from the floor to the cornice : it 
shall be fire-proof inside and outside, the floors and the 
roof to be formed of solid materials, on arches turned on 
proper centres, so that no wood may be used, except for 
doors, windows and shutters : Cellars shall be made 
under the whole building, solely for the purposes of the 
institution ; the doors to them from the outside shall be 
on the east and west of the building, and access to them 
from the inside shall be had by steps, descending to the 
cellar floor from each of the entries or halls hereinafter 
mentioned, and the inside cellar doors to open under the 
stairs on the north-east and north-west corners of the 
northern entry, and under the stairs on the south-east and 
south-west corners of the southern entry ; there should 
be a cellar window under and in a line with, each window 



134 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

in the first story — they should be built one half below, 
the other half above, the surface of the ground, and the 
ground outside each window should be supported by 
stout walls ; the sashes should open inside, on hinges, 
like doors, and there should be strong iron bars outside 
each window ; the windows inside and outside should not 
be less than four feet wide in the clear : There shall be in 
each story four rooms, each room not less than fifty feet 
square in the clear ; the four rooms on each floor to oc- 
cupy the whole space east and west on such floor or 
story, and the middle of the building north and south ; 
so that in the north of the building, and in the south 
thereof, there may remain a space of equal dimensions, 
for an entry or hall in each, for stairs and landings : In 
the north-east and in the north-west corners of the north- 
ern entry or hall on the first floor, stairs shall be made 
so as to form a double stair-case, which shall be carried 
up through the several stories ; and, in Hke manner, in 
the south-east and south-west corners of the southern 
entry or hall, stairs shall be made, on the first floor, so as 
to form a double stair-case, to be carried up through the 
several stories ; the steps of the stairs to be made of 
smooth white marble with plain square edges, each step 
not to exceed nine inches in the rise, nor to be less than 
ten inches in the tread : the outside and inside foundation 
walls shall be at least ten feet high in the clear from the 
ground to the ceiling : the first floor shall be at least 
three feet above the level of the ground around the 
building, after that ground shall have been so regulated 
as that there shall be a gradual descent from the centre to 
the sides of the square formed by High and Chesnut 
and Eleventh and Twelfth streets : all the outside founda- 
tion walls, forming the cellars, shall be three feet and six 
inches thick up to the first floor, or as high as may be 
necessary to fix the centres for the first floor ; and the 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1 35 

inside foundation wall, running north and south, and 
the three inside foundation walls, running east and west, 
(intended to receive tiie interior walls for the four 
rooms each not less than fifty feet square in the clear, 
above mentioned) shall be three feet thick up to the 
first floor, or as high as may be necessary to fix the 
centres for the first floor : when carried so far up, the 
outside walls shall be reduced to two feet in thickness, 
leaving a recess outside of one foot and inside of six 
inches — and when carried so far up, the inside founda- 
tion walls shall also be reduced, six inches on each side 
to the thickness of two feet ; centres shall then be fixed 
on the various recesses of six inches throughout, left for 
the purpose, the proper arches shall be turned, and the 
first floor laid : the outside and the inside walls shall 
then be carried up of the thickness of two feet through- 
out, as high as may be necessary to begin the recess in- 
tended to fix the centres for the second floor, that is 
the floor for the four rooms each not less than fifty feet 
square in the clear, and for the landing in the north, 
and the landing in the south, of the building, where the 
stairs are to go up — at this stage of the work, a chain, 
composed of bars of inch square iron, each bar about 
ten feet long, and linked together by hooks formed of 
the ends of the bars, shall be laid straightly and horizon- 
tally along the several walls, and shall be as tightly as 
possible worked into the centre of them throughout, and 
shall be secured wherever necessary, especially at all 
the angles, by iron clamps solidly fastened, so as to pre- 
vent cracking or swerving in any part ; centres shall then 
be laid, the proper arches turned for the second floor and 
landings, and the second floor and landings shall be laid : 
the outside and the inside walls shall then be carried up 
of the same thickness of two feet throughout as high as 
may be necessary to begin the recess intended to fix 



136 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

the centres for the third floor and landings ; and, when 
so far carried up, another chain similar in all respects to 
that used at the second story, shall be in like manner 
worked into the walls throughout as tightly as possible, 
and clamped in the same way with equal care ; centres 
shall be formed, the proper arches turned, and the third 
floor and landings shall be laid : the outside and the in- 
side walls shall then be carried up, of the same thickness 
of two feet throughout, as high as may be necessary to 
begin the recess intended to fix the centres for the roof; 
and, when so [carried up, a third chain, in all respects 
like those used at the second and third stories, shall in 
the manner before described be worked as tightly as 
possible into the walls throughout, and shall be clamped 
with equal care ; centres shall now be fixed in the man- 
ner best adapted for the roof, which is to form the ceiling 
for the third story, the proper arches shall be turned, 
and the roof shall be laid as nearly horizontally as may 
be, consistently with the easy passage of water to the 
eaves : the outside walls, still of the thickness of two feet 
throughout, shall then be carried up about two feet 
above the level of the platform, and shall have marble 
capping, with a strong and neat iron railing thereon : 
The outside walls shall be faced with slabs or blocks of 
marble or granite, not less than two feet thick, and fast- 
ened together with clamps securely sunk therein — they 
shall be carried up flush from the recess of one foot 
formed at the first floor where the foundation outside 
wall is reduced to two feet : The floors and landings as 
well as the roof shall be covered with marble slabs, 
securely laid in mortar; the slabs on the roof to be 
twice as thick as those on the floors. In constructing 
the walls, as well as in turning the arches, and laying 
the floors, landings, and roof, good and strong mortar, 
and grout, shall be used, so that no cavity whatever may 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1 37 

any where remain. A furnace or furnaces for the gener- 
ation of heated air shall be placed in the cellar, and the 
heated air shall be introduced in adequate quantity 
wherever wanted by means of pipes and flues inserted 
and made for the purpose in the walls, and as those 
walls shall be constructed. In case it shall be found 
expedient, for the purposes of a library or otherwise, to 
encrease the number of rooms by dividing any of those, 
directed to be not less than fifty feet square in the clear, 
into parts, the partition walls to be of solid materials. 
A room most suitable for the purpose, shall be set apart 
for the reception and preservation of my books and 
papers, and I direct that they shall be placed there by 
my executors and carefully preserved therein. There 
shall be two principal doors of entrance into the college, 
one into the entry or hall on the first floor in the north 
of the building, and in the centre between the east and 
west walls, the other into the entr}^ or hall in the 
south of the building, and in the centre between the east 
and west walls ; the dimensions to be determined by a 
due regard to the size of the entire building, to that of 
the entr}^, and to the purposes of the doors. The neces- 
sity for, as well as the position and size of other doors, 
internal or external, and also the position and size of the 
windows, to be, in like manner, decided on by a con- 
sideration of the uses to which the building is to be 
applied, the size of the building itself and of the several 
rooms, and of the advantages of light and air: there 
should in each instance be double doors those opening 
into the rooms to be what are termed glass doors, 
so as to encrease the quantity of light for each room, 
and those opening outward to be of substantial wood 
work well lined and secured: the windows of the second 
and third stories I recommend to be made in the style of 
those in the first and second stories of my present dwell- 



138 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

ing house North Water street, on the eastern front 
thereof; and outside each window I recommend that a 
substantial and neat iron balcony be placed sufficiently 
wide to admit the opening of the shutters against the 
walls; the windows of the lower story to be in the 
same style, except that they are not to descend to the 
floor, but so far as the surbase, up to which the wall 
is to be carried, as is the case in lower story of my 
house at my place in Passyunk township. In minute 
particulars, not here noticed, utility and good taste 
should determine. There should be at least four out- 
buildings, detached from the main edifice and from each 
other, and in such positions as shall at once answer the 
purposes of the institution, and be consistent with the 
symmetry of the whole establishment: — each building 
should be, as far as practicable, devoted to a distinct 
purpose: in that one or more of those buildings, in 
which they may be most useful, I direct my executors 
to place my plate and furniture of every sort. The 
entire square, formed by High and Chesnut streets, 
and Eleventh and Twelfth streets, shall be enclosed 
with a solid wall, at least fourteen inches thick and ten 
feet high, capped with marble and guarded with irons 
on the top so as to prevent persons from getting over : 
there shall be two places of entrance into the square, 
one in the centre of the wall facing High street, and 
the other in the centre of the wall facing Chesnut 
street: at each place of entrance there shall be two 
gates, one opening inward and the other outward ; 
those opening inward to be of iron and in the style of 
the gates north and south of my banking house, and 
those opening outward to be of substantial wood work 
well lined and secured on the faces thereof with sheet 
iron. The messuages now erected on the south-east 
corner of High and Twelfth streets, and on Twelfth 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1 39 

street, to be taken down and removed, as soon as the 
College and out-buildings shall have been erected, so that 
the establishment may be rendered secure and private. 

When the college and appurtenances shall have been 
constructed, and supplied with plain and suitable furni- 
ture, and books, philosophical and experimental instru- 
ments and apparatus, and all other matters needful to carry 
my general design into execution ; the income issues and 
profits of so much of the said sum of two millions of dol- 
lars as shall remain unexpended shall be applied to main- 
tain the said College according to my directions : 

1. The institution shall be organized as soon as prac- 
ticable and, to accomplish that purpose more effectually, 
due public notice of the intended opening of the college 
shall be given — so that there may be an opportunity 
to make selections of competent instructors, and other 
agents, and those who may have the charge of orphans 
may be aware of the provisions intended for them : 

2. A competent number of instructors, teachers, assist- 
ants and other necessary agents, shall be selected, and 
when needful their places from time to time supplied : 
they shall receive adequate compensation for their ser- 
vices : but no person shall be employed who shall not be 
of tried skill in his or her proper department, of estab- 
lished moral character — and in all cases persons shall 
be chosen on account of their merit, and not through 
favour or intrigue. 

3. As many poor white male orphans, between the 
ages of six and ten years, as the said income shall be 
adequate to maintain, shall be introduced into the col- 
lege as soon as possible ; and from time to time as there 
may be vacancies, or as increased ability from income 
may warrant, others shall be introduced. 

4. On the application for admission, an accurate 
statement should be taken, in a book prepared for the 



140 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

purpose, of the name, birth-place, age, health, condition 
as to relatives, and other particulars, useful to be known, 
of each orphan. 

5. No orphan should be admitted until the guardians 
or directors of the poor, or a proper guardian, or other 
competent authority, shall have given, by indenture, 
relinquishment, or otherwise, adequate power to the 
Mayor Aldermen and citizens of Philadelphia, or to 
directors or others by them appointed, to enforce, in 
relation to each orphan, every proper restraint, and to 
prevent relatives or others from interfering with or 
withdrawing such orphan from the institution. 

6. Those orphans, for whose admission application 
shall be first made, shall be first introduced, all other 
things concurring — and at all future times priority of 
application shall entitle the applicant to preference in 
admission, all other things concurring : but, if there shall 
be at any time, more applicants than vacancies, and the 
applying orphans shall have been born in different 
places, a preference shall be given, — first to orphans 
born in the city of Philadelphia ; secondly, to those born 
in any other part of Pennsylvania ; thirdly to those born 
in the city of New York (that being the first port on the 
continent of North America, at which I arrived) ; and 
lastly, to those born in the city of New Orleans, being the 
first port on the said continent at which I first traded, 
in the first instance as first officer, and subsequently as 
master and part owner of a vessel and cargo. 

7. The orphans, admitted into the College, shall be 
there fed with plain but wholesome food, clothed with 
plain but decent apparel (no distinctive dress ever to be 
worn) and lodged in a plain but safe manner : Due re- 
gard shall be paid to their health, and to this end their 
persons and clothes shall be kept clean, and they shall 
have suitable and rational exercise and recreation : 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. I4I 

They shall be instructed in the various branches of a 
sound education, comprehending reading, writing, gram- 
mar, arithmetic, geography, navigation, surveying, prac- 
tical mathematics, astronomy, natural, chemical, and 
experimental philosophy, the French and Spanish lan- 
guages [I do not forbid, but I do not recommend, the 
Greek and Latin Languages] — and such other learning 
and science, as the capacities of the several scholars 
may merit or warrant : I would have them taught facts 
and things, rather than words or signs : And, especially, 
I desire, that by every proper means a pure attachment 
to our republican institutions, and to the sacred rights 
of conscience, as guaranteed by our happy constitutions, 
shall be formed and fostered in the minds of the scholars. 

8. Should it unfortunately happen, that any of the 
orphans, admitted into the college, shall, from mal- 
conduct, have become unfit companions for the rest, 
and mild means of reformation prove abortive, they 
should no longer remain therein. 

9. Those scholars, who shall merit it, shall remain in 
the college until they shall respectively arrive at between 
fourteen and eighteen years of age ; they shall then be 
bound out by the Mayor, Aldermen and citizens of 
Philadelphia, or under their direction, to suitable occu- 
pations, as those of agriculture, navigation, arts, mechan- 
ical trades, and manufactures, according to the capacities 
and acquirements of the scholars respectively; consulting, 
as far as prudence shall justify it, the inclinations of the 
several scholars, as to the occupation, art, or trade, to be 
learned. 

In relation to the organization of the college and its 
appendages, I leave, necessarily, many details to the 
Mayor Aldermen and citizens of Philadelphia and their 
successors ; and I do so, with the more confidence, as, 
from the nature of my bequests and the benefit to result 



142 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

from them, I trust that my fellow citizens of Philadelphia, 
will observe and evince especial care and anxiety in select- 
ing members for their City Councils, and other agents: 
There are, however, some restrictions, which I consider 
it my duty to prescribe, and to be, amongst others, con- 
ditions on which my bequest for said college is made 
and to be enjoyed, namely: first, I enjoin and require, 
that, if, at the close of any year, the income of the fund 
devoted to the purposes of the said college shall be more 
than sufficient for the maintenance of the institution 
during that year, then the balance of the said income, 
after defraying such maintenance, shall be forthwith in- 
vested in good securities, thereafter to be and remain a 
part of the capital ; but, in no event, shall any part of 
the said capital be sold, disposed of, or pledged, to meet 
the current expenses of the said institution, to which I 
devote the interest, income, and dividends thereof ex- 
clusively : Secondly, I enjoin and require, that no eccle- 
siastic, missionary, or minister of any sect whatsoever, shall 
ever hold or exercise any station or duty whatever in the 
said college ; nor shall any such person ever be admitted 
for any purpose, or as a visitor, within the premises appro- 
priated to the purposes of the said college: — . ... In 
making this restriction, I do not mean to cast any reflec- 
tion upon any sect or person whatsoever ; but, as there is 
such a multitude of sects, and such a diversity of opinion 
amongst them, I desire to keep the tender minds of the 
orphans, who are to derive advantage from this bequest, 
free from the excitements, which clashing doctrines and 
sectarian controversy are so apt to produce ; My desire 
is, that all the instructors and teachers in the college 
shall take pains to instil into the minds of the scholars 
the purest principles of morality, so that, on their entrance 
into active life, they may, from inclination and habit, 
evince benevolence towards their fellow creatures, and a 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1 43 

love of truth, sobriety and industry, adopting at the same 
time such religious tenets as their matured reason may 
enable them to prefer. 

If the income, arising from that part of the 

said sum of two millions of dollars, remaining after the 
construction and furnishing of the college and out- 
buildings, shall, owing to the encrease of the number 
of orphans, applying for admission, or other cause, be 
inadequate to the construction of new buildings, or the 
maintenance and education of as many orphans as may 
apply for admission, then such further sum as may be 
necessary for the construction of new buildings and the 
maintenance and education of such further number of 
orphans, as can be maintained and instructed within such 
buildings as the said square of ground shall be adequate 
to, shall be taken from the final residuary fund herein- 
after expressly referred to for the purpose, comprehend- 
ing the income of my real estate in the city and county 
of Philadelphia, and the dividends of my stock in the 
Schuylkill navigation company — my design and desire 
being, that the benefits of said institution shall be ex- 
tended to as great a number of orphans as the limits of 
the said square and buildings therein can accommodate. 

XXII. And as to the further sum of five hundred 
tJiousand dollars, part of the residue of my personal 
estate, in trust, to invest the same securely, and to keep 
the same so invested, and to apply the income thereof 
exclusively to the following purposes, that is to say : 

I. To lay out, regulate, curb, light and pave a passage 
or street, on the east part of the city of Philadelphia, 
fronting the river Delaware, not less than twenty-one 
feet wide, and to be called Delaware Avenue, extending- 
from South or Cedar street, all along the east part of 
Water street squares, and the west side of the logs, 
which form the heads of the docks, or thereabouts ; and 



144 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

to this intent to obtain such acts of Assembly, and to 
make such purchases or agreements, as will enable the 
Mayor Aldermen and citizens of Philadelphia to remove 
or pull down all the buildings, fences and obstructions, 
which may be in the way, and to prohibit all buildings, 
fences, or erections of any kind to the eastward of said 
avenue : — to fill up the heads of such of the docks as 
may not afford sufficient room for the said street ; — to 
compel the owners of wharves to keep them clean and 
covered completely with gravel or other hard materials, 
and to be so levelled that water will not remain thereon 
after a shower of rain ; — to completely clean and keep 
clean all the docks within the limits of the city, fronting 
on the Delaware ; — and to pull down all platforms carried 
out, from the east part of the city over the river Dela- 
ware, on piles or pillars. 

2. To pull down and remove all wooden buildings (as 
well those made of wood and other combustible mate- 
rials, as those called brick-paned or frame buildings 
filled in with bricks) that are erected within the limits 
of the City of Philadelphia — and also to prohibit the 
erection of any such buildings within the said city's 
limits at any future time. 

3. To regulate, widen, pave, and curb Water street, 
and to distribute the Schuylkill water therein upon the 

following plan that is to say, that Water street 

be widened east and west from Vine street all the way 
to South street, in like manner as it is from the front 
of my dwelling to the front of my stores on the west 
side of Water street, and the regulation of the curb- 
stones continued at the same distance from one an- 
other, as they are at present opposite to the said dwell- 
ing and stores, so that the regulation of the said street 
be not less than thirty-nine feet wide, and afford a 
large and convenient foot-way, clear of obstructions 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1 45 

and incumbrances of every nature, and the cellar doors 
on which, if any shall be permitted, not to extend from 
the buildings on to the foot-way more than four feet ; 
the said width to be encreased gradually, as the fund 
shall permit, and as the capacity to remove impedi- 
ments shall encrease, until there shall be a correct and 
permanent regulation of Water street on the princi- 
ples above stated, so that it may run north and south 
as strait as possible : That the ten feet middle alleys, 
belonging to the public, and running from the centre of 
the east squares to Front street, all the way down across 
Water street to the river Delaware, be kept open and 
cleansed as city property, all the way from Vine to 
South street — that such part of each centre or middle 
alley as runs from Front to Water street be arched 
over with bricks or stone, in so strong a manner as to 
facilitate the building of plain and permanent stone steps 
and plat-forms, so that they may be washed and kept con- 
stantly clean : and that the continuance of the said alleys, 
from the east side of Water street be curbed all the way 
to the river Delaware and kept open forever — .... 
(I understand that those middle or centre alleys were 
left open in the first plan of the lots, on the east front of 
the city, which were granted from the east side of Front 
street to the river Delaware, and that each lot on said 
east front has contributed to make those alleys by 
giving a part of their ground in proportion to the size of 
each lot; those alleys were in the first instance, and still 
are, considered public property, intended for the con- 
venience of the inhabitants residing in Front street to 
go down to the river for water and other purposes ; but, 
owing to neglect or to some other cause, on the part of 
those, who have had the care of the city property, several 
encroachments have been made on them by individuals, 
by wholly occupying, or building over, them, or other- 

10 



146 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

wise, and in that way the inhabitants, more particularly 
those who reside in the neighbourhood, are deprived of 
the benefit of that wholesome air, which their opening 
and cleansing throughout would afford) : That the iron 
pipes, in Water street, which, by being of smaller size 
than those in the other streets, and too near the surface 
of the ground, cause constant leaks, particularly in the 
winter season, which in many places render the street 
impassable, be taken up and replaced by pipes of the 
same size quality and dimensions in every respect, and 
laid down as deeply from the surface of the ground, as 
the iron pipes, which are laid in the main streets of the 
city : . . . . and as it respects pumps for Schuylkill water 
and fire-plugs in Water street, that one of each be fixed 
at the south-west corner of Vine and Water streets, and 
so running southward, one of each near the steps of the 
centre alley going up to Front street ; one of each at 
the south-west corner of Sassafras and Water streets, 
one of each near the steps of the centre alley going up 
to Front street, and so on at every south-west corner of 
all the main streets and Water street, and of the centre 
alleys of every square, as far as South or Cedar street ; 
and when the same shall have been completed, that all 
Water street shall be repaved by the best workmen in 
the most complete manner, with the best paving water- 
stones, after the height of the curbstones shall have 
been regulated throughout, as well as the ascent and 
descent of the street, in such manner as to conduct the 
Water through the main streets and the centre alleys to 
the river Delaware, as far as practicable ; and whenever 
any part of the street shall want to be raised, to use 
nothing but good paving gravel for that purpose, so as 
to make the paving as permanent as possible : .... By 
all which improvements, it is my intention to place and 
maintain the section of the city above referred to in a 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1 47 

condition which will correspond better with the general 
cleanness and appearance of the whole city, and be 
more consistent with the safety, health, and comfort of 
the citizens. And my mind and will are, that all the 
income, interest and dividends of the said capital sum 
of five hundred thousand dollars shall be yearly and 
every year expended upon the said objects, in the order 
in which I have stated them as closely as possible, and 
upon no other objects until those enumerated shall have 
been attained : and, when those objects shall have been 
accomplished, I authorise and direct the said The 
Mayor Aldermen and Citizens to apply such part of 
the income of the said capital sum of five hundred thou- 
sand dollars as they may think proper to the further 
improvement, from time to time, of the eastern or Dela- 
ware front of the city. 

XXIII. I give and bequeath to the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania, the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, 
for the purposes of internal improvement by canal navi- 
gation, to be paid into the state treasury by my ex- 
ecutors, as soon as such laws shall have been enacted 
by the constituted authorities of the said commonwealth 
as shall be necessary, and amply sufficient to carry into 
effect, or to enable the constituted authorities of the city 
of Philadelphia to carry into effect, the several improve- 
ments above specified ; namely, i . laws, to cause Dela- 
ware avenue, as above described, to be made, paved, 
curbed, and lighted ; to cause the buildings, fences, and 
other obstructions now existing to be abated and re- 
moved ; and to prohibit the creation of any such ob- 
structions to the eastward of said Delaware avenue : 
2. laws, to cause all wooden buildings as above de- 
scribed to be removed, and to prohibit their future erec- 
tion within the limits of the city of Philadelphia: 3. 
laws, providing for the gradual widening, regulating. 



148 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

paving, and curbing Water street, as hereinbefore de- 
scribed, and also for the repairing the middle alleys, and 
introducing the Schuylkill water, and pumps, as before 
specified — all which objects may, I persuade myself, be 
accomplished on principles at once just into relation to 
individuals, and highly beneficial to the public : the said 
sum, however, not to be paid, unless said laws be passed 
within one year after my decease. 

XXIV. And as it regards the remainder of said residue 
of my personal estate, in trust, to invest the same in good 
securities, and in like manner to invest the interest and in- 
come thereof from time to time, so that the whole shall 
form a permanent fund ; and to apply the income of the 
said fund : — 

1. To the further improvement and maintenance of 
the aforesaid College, as directed in the last paragraph 
of the XXIst clause of this will : 

2. To enable the Corporation of the City of Phila- 
delphia to provide more effectually than they now do, 
for the security of the persons and property of the in- 
habitants of the said city, by a competent police, in- 
cluding a sufficient number of watchmen really suited 
to the purpose ; and to this end, I recommend a division 
of the city, into watch districts or four parts, each under 
a proper head, and that at least two watchmen shall in 
each round or station patrol together. 

3. To enable the said corporation to improve the 
city property, and the general appearance of the city 
itself; and, in effect to diminish the burden of taxation, 
now most oppressive especially on those, who are the 
least able to bear it : 

To all which objects, the prosperity of the City, and 
the health and comfort of its inhabitants, I devote the 
said fund as aforesaid, and direct the income thereof 
to be applied yearly and every year for ever — after pro- 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1 49 

viding for the College as hereinbefore directed, as my 
primary object. But, if the said city shall knowingly 
and wilfully violate any of the conditions hereinbefore 
and hereinafter mentioned, then I give and bequeath 
the said remainder and accumulations to the Com- 
monwealth of Pennsylvania, for the purposes of inter- 
nal navigation, excepting however the rents issues and 
profits of my real estate in the City and County of 
Philadelphia, which shall forever be reserved and ap- 
plied to maintain the aforesaid College, in the manner 
specified in the last paragraph of the XXIst clause of 
this will : And, if the Commonwealth of Pennsylva- 
nia shall fail to apply this or the preceding bequest to 
the purposes before mentioned, or shall apply any part 
thereof to any other use, or shall for the term of one 
year, from the time of my decease, fail or omit to pass 
the laws hereinbefore specified for promoting the im- 
provement of the city of Philadelphia, then I give devise 
and bequeath the said remainder and accumulations (the 
rents aforesaid always excepted and reserved for the Col- 
lege as aforesaid) to the United States of America for the 
purposes of internal navigation and no other. 

Provided, nevertheless, and I do hereby declare, that 
all the preceding bequests and devises of the residue 
of my estate to The Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of 
Philadelphia, are made upon the following express con- 
ditions, that is to say — First, That none of the monies, 
principal, interest, dividends, or rents, arising from the 
said residuary devise and bequest, shall at any time be 
applied to any other purpose or purposes whatever 
than those herein mentioned and appointed : — Second, 
that separate accounts, distinct from the other accounts 
of the corporation, shall be kept by the said Corporation, 
concerning the said devise, bequest, college and funds, 
and of the investment and application thereof; and that 



150 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

a separate account or accounts of the same shall be kept 
in bank, not blended with any other account, so that it 
may at all times appear on examination by a committee 
of the legislature as hereinafter mentioned, that my in- 
tentions had been fully complied with : — Third, That the 
said corporation render a detailed account annually in 
duplicate to the legislature of the Commonwealth of Penn- 
sylvania, at the commencement of the session, one copy 
for the senate, and the other for the house of representa- 
tives, concerning the said devised and bequeathed estate, 
and the investment and application of the same, and 
also a report in like manner of the state of the said 
College, and shall submit all their books papers and ac- 
counts touching the same, to a committee or commit- 
tees of the legislature for examination, when the same 
shall be required: — Fourth, The said corporation shall 
also cause to be published in the month of January, 
annually, in two or more newspapers printed in the city 
of Philadelphia, a concise but plain account of the state 
of the trusts, devises, and bequests herein declared and 
made, comprehending the condition of the said college, 
the number of scholars, and other particulars needful to 
be publicly known, for the year next preceding the said 
month of January, annually. 

XXV. And whereas I have executed an assignment 
in trust of my banking establishment, to take effect the 
day before my decease, to the intent that all the con- 
cerns thereof may be closed by themselves, without 
being blended with the concerns of my general estate, 
and the balance remaining to be paid over to my ex- 
ecutors : Now, I do hereby direct my executors, herein- 
after mentioned, not to interfere with the said trust in 
any way except to see that the same is faithfully exe- 
cuted, and to aid the execution thereof by all such acts 
and deeds as may be necessary and expedient to effec- 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. I5I 

tuate the same, so that it may be speedily closed, and 
the balance paid over to my executors, to go, as in my 
will, into the residue of my estate: And I do hereby 
authorise direct and empower the said trustees from time 
to time, as the capital of the said bank shall be received, 
and shall not be wanted for the discharge of the debts 
due thereat, to invest the same in good securities in the 
names of my executors, and to hand over the same to 
them, to be disposed of according to this my will. 

XXVI. Lastly — I do hereby nominate and appoint 
Timothy Paxson, Thomas P. Cope, Joseph Roberts, 

William J. Duane, and John A. Barclay 

executors of this my last will and testament : I recom- 
mend to them to close the concerns of my estate as 
expeditiously as possible, and to see that my intentions 
in respect to the residue of my estate are and shall be 
strictly complied with : and I do hereby revoke all other 
wills by me heretofore made. 

In witness, I, the said Stephen Girard have to this my 

last will and testament, contained in thirty-five pages, set 

my hand at the bottom of each page, and my hand and 

seal at the bottom of this page ; the said will executed, 

from motives of prudence, in duplicate, this sixteenth 

day of February, in the year one thousand eight hundred 

and thirty. 

STEPHEN GIRARD. [Seal.] 

Signed, sealed, published, and declared 
by the said Stephen Girard, as and for 
his last will and testament, in the 
presence of us, who have at his request 
hereunto subscribed our names as wit- 
nesses thereto in the presence of the 
said testator and of each other, Feb- 
ruary 16, 1830. 

JOHN H. IRWIN, 
SAML ARTHUR, 
S. H. CARPENTER. 



152 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

WHEREAS I, Stephen Girard, the testator named in 
the foregoing will and testament, dated the sixteenth 
day of February eighteen hundred and thirty, have, 
since the execution thereof, purchased several parcels 
and pieces of real estate, and have built sundry mes- 
suages, all which, as well as any real estate that I may 
hereafter purchase, it is my wish and intention to pass 
by the said will, now I do hereby republish the fore- 
going last will and testament dated February 16, i830> 
and do confirm the same in all particulars : In witness, 
I the said Stephen Girard set my hand and seal here- 
unto the twenty-fifth day of December eighteen hun- 
dred and thirty. 

STEPHEN GIRARD. [Sea/.'] 

Signed sealed published and declared ^ 
by the said Stephen Girard as and for 
a re-publication of his last will and tes- 
tament in the presence of us, who at his 
request have hereunto subscribed our 
names as witnesses thereto in the pres- 
ence of the said testator and of each 
other, Dec"^ 25, 1830. 

JOHN H. IRWIN, 
SAML ARTHUR, 
JNO. THOMSON. 

WHEREAS I, Stephen Girard, the testator named 
in the foregoing will and testament, dated February 16, 
1830, have, since the execution thereof, purchased sev- 
eral parcels and pieces of land and real estate, and have 
built sundry messuages, all which, as well as any real 
estate that I may hereafter purchase, it is my intention 
to pass by said will ; and whereas, in particular, I have 
recently purchased from M' William Parker the man- 
sion house, out-buildings, and forty-five acres and some 
perches of land, called Peel-Hall, on the Ridge Road 
in Penn Township, now I declare it to be my intention 



WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1 53 

and I direct that the orphan estabhshment, provided 
for in my said will, instead of being built as therein 
directed upon my square of ground between High and 
Chesnut and Eleventh and Twelfth streets in the city 
of Philadelphia, shall be built upon the estate so pur- 
chased from M' W. Parker, and I hereby devote the 
said estate to that purpose exclusively in the same 
manner as I had devoted the said square, hereby direct- 
ing that all the improvements and arrangements for the 
said Orphan Establishment prescribed by my said will 
as to said square shall be made and executed upon the 
said estate, just as if I had in my will devoted the said 
estate to said purpose — consequently the said square of 
ground is to constitute and I declare it to be a part 
of the residue and remainder of my real and personal 
estate and given and devised for the same uses and pur- 
poses as are declared in section XX. of my will, it 
being my intention that the said square of ground shall 
be built upon and improved in such a manner as to 
secure a safe and permanent income for the purposes 
stated in said XXth section : In witness whereof I, the 
said Stephen Girard set my hand and seal hereunto the 
twentieth day of June eighteen hundred and thirty-one. 
STEPHEN GIRARD. [Seal.] 

Signed sealed published and declared 
by the said Stephen Girard as and for 
a re-publication of his last will and 
testament and a further direction in 
relation to the real estate therein men- 
tioned, in the presence of us who at his 
request have hereunto subscribed our 
names as witnesses thereto in the pres- 
ence of the said testator and of each 
other, June 20, 1851. 

S. H. CARPENTER, 

L. BARDIN, 

SAML ARTHUR. 



154 WILL OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

Philadelphia, December 31st, 1831. — Then personally appeared 
Samuel Arthur and S. H. Carpenter, two of the witnesses to the 
foregoing Will and the second Codicil or repubhcation thereof, 
and on their oaths did say that they were present, and did see and 
hear Stephen Girard, the testator in the said Will and second repub- 
lication thereof named, sign, seal, publish and declare the same as 
and for his last Will and Testament, and republication thereof, 
and that at the doing thereof, he was of sound mind, memory and 
understanding, to the best of their knowledge and belief ; and at 
the same time appeared Jno. Thomson, one of the witnesses to the 
first republication of said Will, and on his solemn affirmation did 
say that he was present, and did see and hear Stephen Girard, the 
testator in the first republication of said Will, named, sign, seal, 
publish, and declare the same as and for a republication of his last 
Will and Testament. And the said Samuel Arthur, another of 
the witnesses to said first republication of said Will, on his oath 
did further say, that he was present, and did hear and see Stephen 
Girard, the testator in the first republication of said Will, named, 
sign, seal, publish and declare the same as and for a republication 
of his last Will and Testament, and they both did say that at the 
doing thereof, he was of sound mind, memory and understanding, 
to the best of their knowledge and belief. 

Coram, 

J. HUMES, Register. 

December 31, 1831. — Timothy Paxson and Thomas P. Cope, 
two of the Executors, affirmed, and Joseph Roberts, William J. 
Duane, and John A. Barclay, the other Executors, sworn, and 
letters testamentary granted unto them. 



REPORT OF TREASURER OF COMMITTEE ON 
GIRARD STATUE. 



REPORT 



TREASURER OF THE COMMITTEE ON 
GIRARD STATUE. 



Philadelphia, July 30, 1897. 
To THE Committee on Girard Statue: 

Gentlemen, — As Treasurer of your Committee, I have 

the honor to report that I have received 757 contribu- 
tions, amounting to $13,159.68, classified as follows : 

Number of 

Contributors. Amounts. Totals. 

I jSiooo.oo $1000.00 

I 200.00 200.00 

80 100.00 8000.00 

16 50.00 800.00 

I 41.25 41.25 

21 25.00 525.00 

10 20.00 200.00 

I 18.75 18.75 

I 18.00 iS.oo 

I 15-75 15.75 

I 17-33 17-33 

7 15.00 105.00 

I 11.65 11-65 

76 10.00 760.00 

I 7-70 7.70 

I 730 7.30 

I 6.66 6.66 

I 6.14 6.14 

I .... • 6.00 6.00 

175 5-00 875.00 

2 4-5° 9.00 

I 4.25 4.25 

2 4.00 8.00 

157 



158 REPORT OF TREASURER. 

Number of 

Contributors. Amounts. Totals. 

I ^3-96 $3-96 

I 3-77 3-77 

2 3.50 7.00 

I 3-34 3.34 

25 3-00 75-00 

I 2.75 2.75 

II 2.50 27.50 

I , 2.29 2.29 

102 2.00 204.00 

I 1.60 1.60 

I 1.58 1.58 

I 1-53 1-53 

I 1.20 1.20 

I 1. 17 1. 17 

I 115 1.15 

I 1. 12 1. 12 

2 1. 10 2.20 

163 i.oo 163.00 

I .94 .94 

I .90 .90 

I .80 .80 

30 .50 15.00 

4 ,25 1.00 

I .10 .10 

757 Jgi3>i59-68 

Lists of the contributors, in alphabetical order, are 
appended, as follows ; 

Alumni of Girard College ' 503 

Officers, teachers, employees, and pupils * of Girard College .... 142 

Members and officials of the Board of Directors of City Trusts . . 18 

Contributors generally 94 

Total 757 

It is deemed inadvisable to print the amounts of the 
individual contributions. 

The odd sums are the contributions of several Sections 
of the pupils in the College. 

* Each " Section" counting as one only. 



REPORT OF TREASURER. I 59 

The expenditures may be classified as follows : 

1. Preliminary and to secure contributions: 

For postage, printing, telegrams, etc 5136.52 

" prizes for models 500.00 

$636.52 

2. Statue and incidental expenses : 

For statue, as per contract $10,000.00 

" copper tubes for records, etc 15.00 

" signs 5.00 

" expenses of committee to inspect work I3-50 

$10,033.50 

3. Unveiling : 

For publication work $57.io 

" rigging, music, horses, flags, etc 412.00 

" printing, postage, telegrams, etc 362,82 

$831.92 

4. Publication and distribution of book : 

For photographs $35.00 

" stenographer 15.00 

" printing and binding 650.00 

" mailing and expressing, etc 100.00 

" miscellaneous 107.74 

$907.74 

Recapitulation : 

Receipts $13,159.68 

Expenditures 12,409.68 

Balance, cash in bank $750.00 



When the book giving an account of the erection of 
the Statue is printed, it is suggested that a circular be 
issued advising of its distribution, and informing the sub- 
scribers in amounts of twenty dollars and over that the 
above balance will be distributed to them pro rata if, by 
a day to be named, they request such distribution, and 
that any balance remaining after that date be paid to 



l6o REPORT OF TREASURER. 

the Girard College Alumni association, to be used in 
paying the mortgage against their property at 1502 
Poplar Street, Philadelphia. 

Kindly appoint a committee to audit my accounts. 

Louis Wagner, 

Treasurer. 

Philadelphia, July 30, 1897. 
This is to certify that we have audited the account of 
Louis Wagner as Treasurer of the Girard Statue Com- 
mittee, that we have carefully examined the list of con- 
tributors and the bills and vouchers, and that we find 
the same correct. 

Lawrence Farrell, 
John Nolen, 
Frederick Unrath, 

Auditing Committee. 



LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. 



LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. 



ALUMNI OF GIRARD COLLEGE. 



Abel, Clarence B. 
Adams, Edward T. 
Adshead, Charles IL 
Ahlum, Charles F. 
Alexander, George. 
Alexander, W. Wallace. 
Anderson, Benjamin F. 
Anderson, David C. 
Anderson, Harry E. 
Anderson, Townsend C. 
Anderson, William D. 
Andress, Samuel C. 
Andrews, Augustus R. 
Angerman, Joseph E. 
Arendt, Frank E. 
Armstrong, William M. 
Arnett, Lewis. 
Ash, John T. 
Atkinson, James F. 
Bader, Charles E. 
Baer, Rev. Winfield S. 
Baird, Joseph R. 
Baker, Blair H. 
Baker, Enoch T. 
Barber, Joseph R. 
Barnes, C. Alonzo. 
Barnes, H. Albert. 
Barr, Hugh. 
Barr, James. 
Bartels, Harry W. 
Barton, Robert M. 
Bartram, George H. 
Batdorf, Harry L. 
Batezell, William H. 
Bauer, Charles F. 



Bayes, James K. 
Beans, William T. S. 
Beck, Anthony A. 
Beckmann, Philip O. 
Beers, Clarence B. 
Bell, Frank F. 
Bell, Robert M. 
Bender, Victor H. 
Benson, William R. 
Bergmann, Frederick J. 
Blascheck, Joseph. 
Boas, Francis J. 
Bogan, John E. 
Bowen, John. 
Bowen, Robert R. 
Bowers, John E. 
Bradley, Warren K. 
Brehm, John P. 
Brines, Frank R. 
Brocklehurst, Harry. 
Brown, Alfred. 
Brown, Ernest H. 
Brown, Samuel W, 
Brown, Thomas. 
Bryan, Frank C. 
Br^'ans, William L 
Bubb, Henry D. 
Burnett, James. 
Burtneit, Clement L. 
Buschner, C. Robert. 
Bussinger, Daniel W. 
Calely, James P. 
Callan, Samuel. 
Campbell, Andrew. 
Campbell, Charles L. 



163 



1 64 



LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. 



Campbell, George J. 
Campbell, James W. 
Campbell, John T. 
Campbell, Joseph A. 
Campbell, William H. 
Carpenter, Leon T. 
Carton, William A. F. 
Cash (Alumnus). 
Clarke, Charles H. 
Cleary, Daniel J. 
Cocking, Charles H. 
Collins, John W. 
Connor, John. 
Craig, David S. 
Craig, Henry M. 
Craig, Horatio. 
Crispen, Anson L. 
Cunningham, Charles. 
Cunningham, Ernest. 
Cunningham, William L. 
Dale, George W. 
Daub, W^illiam S. 
Davis, Harry H. 
Davis, Hector. 
Davis, John. 
Davis, Samuel H. 
Dawes, Charles H. 
Deakyne, Irvin S. 
Deal, Harry W. 
Deal, Walter P. 
DeBow, Theodore L. 
DeBurlo, Frederick A. 
Deery, John J. 
Devine, James. 
Devlin, John. 
Dickes, Walter L. 
Dilg, W. Lane. 
Dimmick, Lewis J. 
Dobbins, Rev. Frank S. 
Donahue, Benjamin. 
Donahue, Edward. 
Donahue, Thomas H. 
Donahue, William J. 
Dougherty, Charles H. 



Dougherty, William J. 
Douglass, William E. 
Dowdell, Thomas. 
Downing, Robert M. 
Downs, Alexander. 
Duffy, James A. 
Duffy, Rev. Joseph P. 
Dunegan, James D. 
Dunlap, Joseph. 
Duren, William E. 
Dutton, John M. 
Edwards, Edwin A. 
Eimerman, Charles H. 
Elder, Alexander T. 
Elder, John. 
Ellenberger, George W. 
Ellenberger, William M. 
Ellwanger, Walter H. 
Erskine, Joseph B. 
Erskine, Robert. 
Evans, Charles. 
Evans, William C. 
Falbey, Frank W. 
Farley, James L. 
Farrell, Lawrence. 
Fayant, Francis V. 
Ferguson, Thomas W. 
Fey, Lawrence C. 
Fey, William W. 
Fick, John N. 
Fink, Daniel. 
Firth, Joseph, Jr. 
Fisher, John A. 
Fleischman, Frederick W. 
Flood, Thomas. 
Ford, Edwin M. 
Foreman, William H. 
Forrest, Benjamin. 
Forrest, Edwin. 
Friend of the Alumni. 
Friend of the Alumni. 
Friend of the Alumni. 
Fromuth, Frederick G. 
Frovvert, Charles G., M.D. 



ALUMNI OF GIRARD COLLEGE. 



65 



Furey, Edward R, 
Gartmeier, John G. 
Gates, William W. 
GaufT, John J. P. 
Gibson, Irvin M. 
Ginglaml, Richard B. 
Githens, Harry W. 
Githens, Sherwood, 
Gold, Clifford. 
Gold, Howard W. 
Gold, Walter C. 
Goldey, William A. 
Gore, Daniel T. 
Graeber, John A. 
Graeser, Ferdinand H. 
Graham, Samuel. 
Gransback, Howard G. 
Gray, John. 
Green, David C. 
Greiner, Rudolph W. 
Gresmer, Howard A. 
Griesemer, Egbert C. 
Griffith, David ^L 
Griffith, Jethro J. 
Griffith, Nathan M. 
Griffith, Robert. 
Grigg, Joseph B. 
Gullman, Emil. 
Haas, William H. 
Habenstein, Henry E. 
Hackett, Peter. 
Hagan, Joseph M. 
Hall, William W. 
Hallman, H. Lewis. 
Hamilton, Robert. 
Hanefeld, Ernest T. 
Hanmore, Frank. 
Harman, Charles E. 
Harmer, Albert B. 
Harrigan, Benjamin F. 
Harrigan, Frank A. 
Harrigan, John. 
Haslam, John. 
Hassard, James. 



Hastings, Robert. 
Heiland, Charles. 
Heiland, Louis. 
Henderson, Samuel J. 
Henry, Samuel R. 
Henry, William. 
Hen wood, Abraham. 
Henwood, Charles E. 
Herman, Frank. 
Herstine, David C. 
Hess, Jacob D. 
Heys, Edward M. 
Hill, Charles H. 
Hill, Frank. 
Hilton, William W. 
Hogan, John J. 
Holmes, Paul. 
Holmes, Samuel P. 
Horn, Herman C. 
Howland, Henry C. 
Huhn, Henry. 
Hunderfund, Edmund D. 
Hunter, William H. 
Huston, James. 
Plutchinson, Joseph H. 
Ibinson, James. 
Ihrig, Frederick L. 
Ingraham, William A. 
Jackson, George W. 
Jacobs, John. 
Jaeckel, Herman A. 
James, George. 
Jeffries, William H. 
Jenkins, Henry Z. 
Johnson, Robert J. 
Jones, A. Lincoln. 
Jones, Samuel. 
Kalck, Albert C. 
Kalck, Nicholas A. 
Kavanagh, Joseph F 
Keck, Alexander J. 
Keck, Emil G. 
Keim, Samuel D. 
Kelly, John H. 



1 66 



LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. 



Kennedy, William. 

Keown, Robert. 

Kerlin, George H. 

Kerlin, Samuel R. 

Kern, George. 

Keser, Harry J. 

Keys, George W. F. 

Kilpatrick, William H. 

Kincaid, James. 

Kindell, David S. 

King, Thomas. 

Kinsing, Lewis C. 

Kleckner, John R, 

Knowles, George W. 

Knox, James C. 

Koehl, George J. 

Kofke, Christian. 

Koppenhoefer, Louis, 

Krumm, John. 

Kyle, William. 

Ladies Auxiliary Committee of 

Girard College Alumni. 
LafFerty, Henry B. 
Lamport, Edward H. 
Landis, Josiah H. 
Lang, Gabriel. 
Lang, Philip G. 
Larkin, Francis E. 
LaSerre, James. 
Lawlor, Richard W. 
Lawlor, William H. 
Lawn, Thomas H. 
Leber, Harry C. 
Lemon, Albert, 
Lennon, James E. 
Levering, William C. 
Light, H. Edgar. 
Lindsay, David A. 
Lindsay, Hugh. 
Littleton, William E. 
Long, Harry D. 
Lonsdale, Thomas P. 
Luft, Henry, 
Luft, William F, 



Lyons, Samuel. 
Lyster, Frank. 
McCadden, Edmund A. 
McCallion, James. 
McClay, Thomas C, 
McCormick, Andrew M, 
McCoiTnick, William. 
McCouch, John. 
McCray, Matthew. 
McCreary, James. 
McCullen, George E. 
McCullen, H. G, 
McCutcheon, Joseph. 
McDowell, Stewart H. 
McFalls, Thomas. 
McGill, Robert G. 
McGown, Percy S, 
McKanna, George. 
Mclntyre, Charles. 
McLachlan, William. 
Macdonald, Andrew. 
Mackey, C. Stanley. 
Mackin, Francis F. 
MacNeill, Fletcher W. 
Malpass, Charles H. 
Mayne, Edward J. 
Mayne, Henry W. 
Mergenthaler, John H. 
Merrick, George B. 
Mesch, Charles. 
Meyers, George J. 
Miller, William. 
Mitchell, Isaac. 
Momberger, Philip. 
Morton, D. Walter. 
Mouat, David C. 
Mullin, William. 
Murphy, Robert S. 
Murphy, Thomas V. 
Mutch, Samuel H. 
Nagele, Frederick. 
Nattress, William Elmer. 
Naves, James A. 
Neel, Robert. 



ALUMNI OF GIRARD COLLEGE. 



167 



Neely, Frederick B. 
Neison, John R. 
Neison, Philip vS. 
Nesbitt, Thomas H. 
Newnam, W. Charles. 
Nichols, Arthur. 
Nichols, C. Elmer. 
Nichols, Frank A. 
Nickell, Robert J., D.D.S. 
Nolen, John. 
Norris, John. 
Northime, Frank E. 
Ogden, D. Nelson. 
O'Rourke, Michael. 
Orr, George. 
Orr, Thomas. 
Parke, Harry S. 
Parkinson, Martin H. 
Patterson, George R. 
Patterson, Walter G. 
Pedlow, Harr}'. 
Peiffer, George A. 
Peters, Charles G. 
Pierce, Thomas. 
Pollard, Frank S. 
Porter, John G. 
Powell, Alfred S. 
Powell, E. Forrest. 
Powell, Frederick H. 
Price, Isaac. 
Price, Robert S. 
Prince, Charles M. 
Prosser, Thomas B. 
Quereau, Harry- E. 
Quinn, George J. 
Radcliffe, John W. 
Radford, Robert. 
Raff, William B. 
Rafferty, Alfred W. 
Rafferty, William A. 
Rainey, Henry. 
Ranson, John J. 
Rauch, Augustus W. 
Reardon, George T. 



Reilly, Andrew J. 
Reilly, Bernard M. 
Reinard, Frank E. 
Reinard, William H. 
Reinhardt, Harr}' B. 
Richards, Edwin F. 
Ridgway, Walter S. 
Riedel, Francis M. 
Riegel, William C. 
Riess, William G. 
Rise, George D., Jr. 
Ritter, George W. 
Rivell, Willard B. 
Roberts, George W. 
Roberts, Henry H. 
Rodenbaugh, Elmer E. 
Rodgers, John J. S. 
Ross, William H. 
Rowe, Charles E. 
Rowe, James M. 
Rowe, William M. 
Russell, David W. 
Ruth, Frank H. 
Sager, John C. 
Samuels, James D. 
Samuels, William F. 
Sattler, William. 
Saunders, Robert R., M.D. 
Saylor, Charles O. 
Schaefer, Herman. 
Schaller, George W. 
Schaller, Otto C. 
Schaufler, Augustus C. 
Schmidt, George. 
Schubert, John E. 
Scott, John J. 
Seidel, Josiah D. 
Sellers, Walter R. 
Seybert, Charles H. 
Shields, Charles F. 
Simpler, Claude A. 
Simpson, James A. 
Sloan, Joseph A. 
Smith, Harr}'. 



1 68 



LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. 



Smith, Joseph B. 
Smith, Walter C. 
Smith, William A. F. 
Snelbaker, Philip A. 
Souwers, George F., M.D. 
Spaeth, Augustus C. 
Stapf, Frederick C. 
Steel, Henry M. 
Steele, Samuel J. 
Steiger, Charles. 
Stockton, John A. 
Stott, David B. 
Stowe, William C, Jr. 
Stoy, Harry A. 
Strassheim, Harry C. 
Stringfield, Rodney T. 
Sulger, James E. 
Sutton, Joseph. 
Sykes, George W. 
Taggart, Robert. 
Taylor, Henry H. 
Tegtmeyer, Gustavus. 
Tempest, George E. 
Terhune, Charles E. 
Terhune, Clarke S. 
Terhune, Robert S. 
Teufel, Herman A. 
Thompson, Alexander. 
Thompson, Charles B. 
Thompson, Robert J. 
Thompson, Samuel. 
Thompson, William G. 
Tindall, Joseph R. 
Tindall, William. 
Tobin, Thomas. 
Tod, Alva, M.D. 
Toner, Henry A. 
Trappe, William H. 
Tuttle, William N. 
Twining, David R. 
Unrath, Frederick. 



VanFleet, Verner, 
Viehmann, George L. 
Wade, William H. 
Wagner, Albert D. 
Wagner, Benjamin I. 
Wagner, Paul M. 
Wakefield, George W. 
Walker, William S. 
Walton, Frank S. 
Weil, Samuel R. 
Weinert, Charles. 
Weintraub, Morris. 
Weiss, Harry. 
Weiss, Oscar. 
Welsh, Benjamin F. 
Wike, Edgar L. 
Wike, Milton R. 
Willett, Calvin A. 
Williams, Howard L. 
Wilson, James. 
Wilson, John B. 
Wilson, William V. 
Wiltbank, George B. 
Windrim, James H. 
Wistar, George H. 
Wistar, Samuel. 
Wolfe, Jonathan A. 
Wood, Clarence M. 
Wood, Thomas W. 
Woolman, Howard B. 
Work, A. Ashton. 
Wright, Andrew. 
Wright, Richard P. 
Yeager, Joseph. 
Yearsley, Warren D. C. 
Young, Mahlon D. 
Zehnder, Frederick. 
Zeller, William H. 
Zesinger, Frank O. 
Ziegler, Stephen. 
Zwirner, Frederick. 



OFFICERS, TEACHERS, EMPLOYEES, PUPILS. I 69 



OFFICERS, TEACHERS, EMPLOYEES, AND PUPILS OF 
GIRARD COLLEGE. 



Anthony, Samuel. 

Laker, Clyde G. 

Bangert, Henry. 

Bartlett, Eva. 

Battalion of Girard College Cadets. 

Becker, George J. 

Boas, Mrs. Fanny T. 

Braddock, Harriet. 

Breen, John W. 

Brophy, Katharine H. 

Building No. 7, Employees of. 

Bullock, Margaretta P. 

Burnett, Bessie. 

Case, Adele C. 

Cecil, William J. 

Chew, Sallie M. 

Coggeshall, Thellwell R. 

Cox, Alice W. 

Cummings, Robert K. 

Danenhour, Frank H. 

Dare, Lizzie C. 

Davis, Charles E. 

Doughty, Gillingham F. 

Dudbridge, A. Davis. 

Earl, Mrs. Hannah E. 

Edwards. Capt. Frank A., U. S. A. 

Ekings, Elizabeth. 

Engineer's Dep't, Employees of. 

Evans, Herbert L. 

Fels, John G. F. 

Fetterolf, Adam H., LL.D. 

Forst, John R.,M.D. 

Franklin, Mary. 

Covers, Mary L. 

Grove, Anna B. 

Guiteras, Calixto, C.E. 

Harley, John K., M.E. 

Hay, Henry Hanby. 

Hehvig, George E. 



Henshen, Charles C. 

Heritage, Marian B. 

Herring, John. 

Ilolden, Warren, A.M. 

Hummel, Charles F. 

Huster, George. 

Jackson, Jane K. 

Janney, William S., M.D. 

Krickbaum, Mrs. Elizabeth, 

Laundry, Employees of. 

Lewis, Louis. 

Litch, Wilbur F., D.D.S. 

McBride, Mary. 

McDermott, James B. 

McDuffee, Elizabeth. 

Matron's Department, Employees of. 

Miller, Hessy R. 

Miller, Virginia. 

Moran, Mrs. Mar}'. 

Morgan, Kate L. 

Myer, Rudolph. 

Noble, Mrs. Emma. 

Overn, Charlotte E. 

Payne, Emily E. 

Peeples, Nellie. 

Peoples, Jane. 

Peoples, Mary. 

Perrins, Thomas. 

Price, George W. 

Prime, Frederick, Ph.D. 

Pupils of Section A. 

" Section B. 

" Section D. 

" Section E. 

*' Section F. 

'' Section I, 

" Section K. 

" Section L. 

" Section M. 

" Section N. 



170 



LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. 



Pupils of Section 14. 

" Section 15. 

" Section 16. 

" Section 17. 
Section 18. 

" Section 19. 

" Section 20. 

** Section 21. 

" Section 22. 

" Section 23. 

" Section 7-A. 

" Section 7-B. 

" Section 7-C. 

" Section 7-D. 

'* Section 7-E. 

" Section 7-F. 

*' Section 7-G. 

" Section 7-H. 
Ragotzky, Charlotte A. 
Rainier, Mrs. Annie H. 
Rausch, Ida M. 
Redamar, Christian. 
Reese, Mrs. C. 
Robb, Mary E. 
Roberts, Eva. 
Ross, The Misses. 
Rupp, George P. 
Sheldon, Winthrop D., A.M. 
Shenk, A. Tillie. 
Shoe Department, Employees of. 
Shreve, Anna M. 



Silliman, Phoebe. 
Simon, Mme. S. Anna. 
Sithens, Richard B. 
Smith, Lilian T. 
Smith, W. Atlee. 
Spiese, Mrs. Margaret A. 
Stone, Mrs. Edith W. 
Stubblebine, Raymond F. 
Taylor, Herbert. 
Thomas, N. Wiley, Ph.D. 
Thompson, Mrs. Elizabeth B. 
Thornily, Elizabeth. 
Town, Emily P. 
Tucker, Virginia B. 
Upri chard, John. 
Walker, Isaac P. 
Walker, James N., A.M. 
Ware, Mary D. 
Whitby, Sara H. 
White, Mary. 
Whitecar, Caroline M. 
Williamson, Charles S. 
Willis, C. Addison, M.E. 
Wilson, Annie J. 
Wilson, Helen A. 
Wilson, James. 
Winn, Thomas. 
Wolf, Louise St. C. 
Wood, Townsend R. 
Wurzer, Gustavus. 
Wylie, Margaret. 



MEMBERS AND OFFICIALS OF THE BOARD OF 
DIRECTORS OF CITY TRUSTS. 



Biddle, Alexander. 
Buckley, Edward S. 
Campbell, John Marie. 
Caven, Joseph L. 
Comegys, Benjamin B. 
Converse, John H. 



Cuming, John K. 
Elkins, William L. 
Sanders, Dallas. 
Stuart, Edwin S. 
Wagner, Louis. 
Boyd, John S. 



CONTRIBUTORS GENERALLY. 



171 



Brewster, F. Carroll. 
Highley, Frank M. 
Kaercher, Samuel H. 



Kirkpatrick, George E. 
Thompson, Heber S. 
Wagner, Emil C. 



CONTRIBUTORS GENERALLY. 



Achuff, William II. H. 

Armstrong, James. 

Babcock tlic Wilco.x Co. 

Bank of North America, John II. 

Michener, President. 
Beaver, James A. 
Bechtel, Theodore H. 
Berger, Stephen C. 
Brooks, Lieut. Edwards C, U.S.A. 
Brush Electric Light Co. 
Burnham, Williams & Co. 
Byrne, Mrs. James J. 
Clyde, William P. & Co. 
Dando, Mrs. Albert. 
Disslon, Hamilton. 
Dittman, H. F. 
Dobbins, Murrell. 
Doyle & Doak. 
Drexel, George W. C. 
Dufify, Mrs. Joseph P. 
Ehret, Michael, Jr. 
Elkins, George W. 
Elkins, William L., Jr. 
Elverson, James. 
Filbert, Ludwig S., M.D. 
Finance Co. of Penna. 
Fischer, William G. 
Gill, William B. 
Girard, Mrs. Ellen E. 
Girard, Fabricius. 
Girard, Linda M. 
Girard Life Insurance, Annuity &. 

Trust Co. 
Girard National Bank. 
Gray, William & Sons. 



Haag, John. 

Henr>', Charles W. 

Houston, Edwin J., Ph.D. 

Howell, Charles H. 

Humphreys, Edward J. 

Hunsworth, Mrs. Caroline G. 

Ingram, Henry A. 

Ingram, William H. 

Kendrick, George W., Jr. 

King, William & Co. 
1 Kisterbock, John. 
I Knickerbocker Ice Co. 
' Lawrence, Charles. 

Lehigh Valley Coal Co. 

Lippincott Co., J. B. 

McBane, Wallace A. 

McCambridge & Co., Ltd. 

McClees, L. B. & Co. 

McManus, Patricius. 

Mack, John M. 

Muckle, M. R., Jr. & Co. 

Mundell, John & Co. 

Neff, John A. 

Parke, William E., M.D. 

Payne, George F. & Co. 

Philadelphia, City of. 

Philadelphia Demokrat. 

Porter, Charles A. 

Poth, Frederick A. 

Reed's, Jacob, Sons. 

Rey, Marie V. 

Rhodes, William. 

Ridey, John. 

Riebenack, Max. 

Roesch, Chas. & Sons. 



172 



LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. 



Rorke, Allen B. 
Rosengarten, Joseph G. 
Sailer & Stevenson. 
Seeds, Jacob J. 
Shoemaker, Thomas B. 
Singerly, William M. 
Snellenburg, N. & Co. 
Snyder, "William. 
Stokley, William S. 
Strawbridge, Justus C. 
Swain, Charles M. 
Third National Bank. 
Thomas, George C. 



Thomson, Frank. 
Wagner & Taylor. 
Walker, Pancoast. 
Wanamaker, John. 
Wanamaker & Brown. 
Warburton, Barclay H. 
Widener, George D. 
Widener, P. A. B. 
William Penn Coal Co. 
Windrim, John T. 
Wisler, I. H. & Son. 
Wright, Tyndale & VanRoden. 
Zesinger, Harry R. 



020 074 689 2 



